The Swarm

The Swarm (Full Version)

All Forums >> [New Releases from Matrix Games] >> Distant Worlds 1 Series >> After Action Reports

Message

Bingeling -> The Swarm (2/14/2011 5:16:51 PM)
Some wanted me to keep the last one going, but I started a new game. The old one was getting stale, anywas. This time the start was: 700 stars, much is normal, I think low independent states, irregular clusters. My empire is normal at start tech and advancement. Opposition are expanding and at tech level 1. If I remember right. I can't remember if space monsters were dropped from normal, pirates should be normal. It is probably restless... I ended up as the Gizurean starting on the right edge of the galaxy. As this starts, I have ended in war with the Gundagale Commonwealth (Kiadian) after provoking them with lots of intelligence missions. AI is still in charge, but I may interfere with ordering gas mines on fuel sources (queue closest constructor), and I may build space ports if they are annoyingly absent. I will also replenish construction ships and explorers if the AI stops building them. And buying and controlling the military is my business, even if the troop recruitment for the most part is automated. The opening status is that I have made an assault on a powerful midway colony of the Kiadians and killed a defensive base. I have bought more ships to assault again. The place got a large space port and one more defensive base. On my western edge my 1st fleet have been welcoming an incoming attack ratted on by my (AI built) monitoring stations. [image]http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/h426/Bingeling/Swarm/Part1/1stFleet.jpg[/image] As you can see, they have their orders set. One ship is particluarly low on fuel, but it is enough to go quite a bit past our target, so it should not matter. The local area is like this: [image]http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/h426/Bingeling/Swarm/Part1/TheLocalStart.jpg[/image] I am the yellow guys (edited), rest of the colors are race standard apart from humans which are the lighter securan blue (they partly share area, and even a system, with the Kiadians, so I need some color separation). The target is that colony top left. The fleet up there is only 4 ships and not a major factor. I have an Invasion Fleet with 7 troop transports and 35 troops ready in my western city, not so easy to see. The target has some 10-ish defenders which should be easy enough if we can down that large space port and defensive base. I won't sneak in and hijack areas beneath space ports. There is four known pirate bases further north, but the war interrupted the hunt for them. I have manually ordered gas mine to be built on a caslon source within the scan range of that scan circle in the south (a base found that is above my colony), and I have manually ordered a small space port on one of those colonies, I think the southern one. And yes, that is a pirate seen ship on scan and I have no military ship even remotely close, the 4th fleet can be seen limping north out of fuel. We have both way of the ancients and way of darkness available after finding them, but if they will be used is up to the AI. We have found a refugee fleet of Ketarov. The frigate was retired, the colony ship founded one of the southern colonies, and the cruiser died in the first assault on that colony up there... I know an enemy resupply ship is in the gas cloud north of me (where I have activity), but that is a problem for a later time. Now we go hunting. How do I know this? The enemy operations map has been stolen multiple times, but a lot of proud spies have been caught. Below is the diplomacy screen. No one likes me, but that is OK, we don't like them either. And the galaxy map giving a clue about open areas. [image]http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/h426/Bingeling/Swarm/Part1/TheGalaxyStart.jpg[/image] [image]http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/h426/Bingeling/Swarm/Part1/DiplomacyStart.jpg[/image]

Data -> RE: The Swarm (2/14/2011 6:35:04 PM)
nice to see you persevere, Bingeling [sm=00000436.gif]

Mofouler -> RE: The Swarm (2/14/2011 7:44:27 PM)
indeed. This already seems like something interesting. Can't wait for the next post

Bingeling -> RE: The Swarm (2/14/2011 9:12:04 PM)
Moments after finishing that last message, pause was pressed. After the 1st fleet goes into the air, a new situation arrises and needs correction: [image]http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/h426/Bingeling/Swarm/Part2/Correction.jpg[/image] The invasion fleet is a short way north, and one transport takes the trip to fix the color settings down there. The 1st fleet is positive to news about ships leaving the target area for what is probably the resupply ship further east. It won't hurt to not have some small strike fleets joining the fray. Nabaarc is 99% quality and contains 5575M Kiadians... [image]http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/h426/Bingeling/Swarm/Part2/Approach.jpg[/image] Perfect approach compared to the defensive base. A 34 ship strong 1st fleet is approaching my northern monitoring station while this goes on... The upstart colony on my island is conquered and 15M Ugnari join the hive. 27 ships are alive when the space port falls, and they attack the defensive base. 26 are alive when the defensive base dies, 5 are damaged. Hopefully the giant enemy fleet will not go here when done with the monitoring station. At least not until invasion fleet has dropped its load. That huge fleet is just a very short jump away. There are 12 defenders, and it is a regional capital. They immediately builds a new space port which is of course cancelled by our weapons. Valiu Koomiel gets a safe trip home after taking some of their knowledge on Enhanced Torpedoes. And Xha Hezzok steals their operation maps while the mop up action is going on and the Invasion Fleet prepares to exit hyperspace. There is a resupply ship in the clouds north of my cluster, as are the 6th fleet with 17 ships and 7 troops and the 17th fleet with 16 ships and no troops. The 34 ship 1st fleet is going north after having killed the monitoring station. Note to self: The resupply ship is in NK499... After dropping the damaged ships so that they can find their way home, 1st fleet has 21 ships and is low on fuel. [image]http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/h426/Bingeling/Swarm/Part2/Nebaarc.jpg[/image] What a gem. Soon to me my gem. Too bad about the population lacking antennas. The puny fleets of theirs are no big threat to the Janudral Mezar 1 main hive. At home we got 17 troops, a medium space port, and 3 defensive bases. The 1st fleet is happy to use its last fuel for shooting up members of the Gundagale Merchant Marine arriving with materials for their new space port projects. We lose some agents on offensive missions, but catch a nasty agent trying to infiltrate our hive. Pirates attack my southern mining bases as the 4th fleet being refueled head south. Most of my northern mining bases fall to huge Gundagale fleets. Our agent Bakra Pruggu returns with the galaxy map of the Gundagale Commonwealth. [image]http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/h426/Bingeling/Swarm/Part2/NewGalaxyMap.jpg[/image] Comment: How different the game is when the AI uses spies... The northeast is not explored, not the southern edge of my empire, and not the eastern edge of the large cluster in the south. And some minor holes are spread around, like the fringes of some clusters. The 6th fleet of the badguys, which we saw had 7 troops, descend on my colony of Rait in the Tanaab system. It is the northeastern one of the 3 close ones in the picture above. The lone defender prepare for action. The colony is lost, but it was a good trade when we consider what I take from them. No, I am not talking of the new colony they splashed at my base... 5 troops are ready in the troop transport used to take the southern town, but it is not enough to beat the 7 invaders. I order 10 more troops to be raised at the capital. A new colony ship is built to go to a nice homey place found in the southwest. Pirates roam in the south, and the 4th fleet passes as they attack my new gas mine (that I booked on a caslon source). They get side tracked and kills the pirate, but not before it can damage a few components on the base. Southern cities of my main cluster gets visitors from huge fleets. It is good that infrastructure is thin, there is nothing to shoot up... I order 4-5 troops in all northern cities manually. We need forces. Colony department wants a new colony in the heart of enemy land. Sure, if we are lucky they can land, and they waste troops there... A new space port is under constructor at Nebaarc, our soon to be pearl in the west. Now there is no one to shoot it down. 1st fleet crawls home to refuel. A new version of their galaxy map is stolen, we doubt there is much new to see. 4th fleets sits on the new space port in the south until it can defend itself from pirates. Now pirates attack a mine in the north that our enemy did miss on its earlier rampage. Only 4 defenders left at Nebaarc, a lot of attackers are left... The enemy builds a mining station in one of my far south systems. It is nice that they build where I can see them. And we have one more colone, Nebearc. Or whatever it is called. 20 troops are there, and I want them to stay to keep the local blues down... We inherit a large space port with 41 unbuilt parts. Pirates kill the new enemy mining station in the south. I am sooo sad. Go, go, kill the constructor too! They didn't, it fled. Another colony up north is suggested. We got enough young to send. Bakra Pruggu is trying to infiltrate the enemy (281 skill). 1st fleet still creeps back for fuel. It is hard work to kill a large space port. The colony ship approaching our new SW colony finds a ruin that boosts both conoly growth and national energy research. 5th fleet, a not long living invasion fleet with 3 ships, attack Rait, our lost colony at home. Our inherited large space port lacks 5 compontents... The ones giving shields/energy. Can you please stay away a bit longer? A new operations map is stolen. The 17th fleet is in the south with 16 ships and 0 troops. And 0 fuel. They have a long way to get fueled. 1st fleet is at the space port, hopefully finding fuel to bust their resupply ship. Crisis! the resupply ship has moved to the very south, their fleet is not so lost after all. The 3 ship fleet next door may be a bit weak for that as it has 2320 shield and 173 fire power. A quick attempt is attempted, the shield don't budge much. Rait got 7 defenders against our 15 attackers. 1st fleet with 20 ships and fuel goes south to the planet with the resupply ship. It is a long flight. We got our spy into their system. We can see eeeverything! Humans establish a colony on the west edge of our home cluster. Hmpf. The colony was mortalen based, and immediately rebels and become independent. It is too bad their 17th fleet in the south will have time to refuel, but it is anyways weaker than our 1st fleet. We capture one nasty trying to infiltrate our empire. Hm, the 17th move to attack Station005, I got no such thing. Our inside spy tells us of course. They are at war with the Atuuk too now, who are based just along them. I somehow doubt the Kiadian declared that war... I don't see much sense in going there from my far south, but I won't complain! A troop transport is sent to attack the new independent in our home area as Rait is again included in our extended hive network. I have ordered two defensive bases at our new western jewel. 1st fleet kills the resupply ship, and 4 ships leave the fleet to form the 6th fleet in the south. The rest return north. Pirates, pirates everywhere. I suspect some pirates are taking a bribe. All colonies on my home cluster (and the one to the south) are now on my hands. The capital starts building 12 new destroyers to be made into three 4 ship fleets, and we also book a constructor to build a gas mine in Tebru (our western pearl). [image]http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/h426/Bingeling/Swarm/Part2/NorthernFront.jpg[/image] I am not sure the inhabitants at our new colony on the northern front feels all that safe. Two new of my new fleets move to pirate infested gas clouds to our far north. Some extermination is needed. 1st fleet retrofit back home. The two fleets sent pirate hunting to the north complete their objectives and limps home with little fuel. A third gang surrenders to our might out of fear, and 3 small ships from that gang are sent to retire. The base has some fuel, and is scrapped. The space port at our jewel in the west produce 4 destroyers for the new 10th fleet. There are a couple of enemy mining bases in the gas clouds a good distance west of there that needs to be cleared out when traffic around is low. An insider is a handy thing. Nautheen Territory cancels trade with us. That would be the humans, we have not quite managed to get familiar with our neighbors yet. Not that we care, we will be at their doors soon enough. The Atuuk on the other hand, keeps offering free trade agreements. We now have 3 colonies in the north. Nothing bad has happened to them yet. Huge out of fuel fleets are heading to the TD481 Gas mining station out west. The 9th fleet with its 4 brave destroyers goes in for the kill. On the mine, that is. 8th fleet attacks the last known pirate den in the north. We now have 8 agents. 5 at a skill level of 105 (our starting point), the other at 178, 336 and 400. And just so it is mentioned. Money is 1M and a bit, casflow +42k, bonus income 13k. [image]http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/h426/Bingeling/Swarm/Part2/9thAttackMine.jpg[/image] 9th fleet attack the gas mine. Only two of the enemy war ships got fuel, so ship count does not give a correct picture. The subortinates want to build no less than 42 escorts, 45 frigates, 8 destroyers and 3 troop transports. We compromise at 7 troop transports to make a total of 14, while we consider destroyer needs for more offensive operations. [image]http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/h426/Bingeling/Swarm/Part2/TheLongWayHome.jpg[/image] We can see the 9th fleet (lower) going home after killing the gas mining gig and a few of its customers, and we can see the long, slow way home for lots of disappointed customers that got away or turned based on the "bad" news of the base's vanishing act. On the right the 8th fleet returns from killing the 4th (and last known) pirate base up north. Pirate attack almost at my door step, how rude. Like I got any defense there?! The base dies. Attacks have become less frequent, and we found the base in the south. Gex Puksha have infiltrated the Nutheen Territory (the humans). The large space port at Tebru system starts to build 20 new destroyers which will make up a new fleet. The capital at Jundral Mezar makes 5 new destroyers to bump the 1st fleet to a total of 20. Girax guild demand that we restore trade with the Free Ugnari Consortium. Hmpf, demands?! Some status pictures. The home area is peaceful, the blues are back at their home area. Monitoring bases are all AI built. No forces of mine are NW of the midway I conquered. [image]http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/h426/Bingeling/Swarm/Part2/GalaxyEnd.jpg[/image] [image]http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/h426/Bingeling/Swarm/Part2/Diplomacy.jpg[/image] [image]http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/h426/Bingeling/Swarm/Part2/Status1.jpg[/image] [image]http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/h426/Bingeling/Swarm/Part2/Status2.jpg[/image] [image]http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/h426/Bingeling/Swarm/Part2/Spies.jpg[/image] Not the full list: [image]http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/h426/Bingeling/Swarm/Part2/planets.jpg[/image]

Data -> RE: The Swarm (2/14/2011 9:48:33 PM)
man, you must have a secretary that types as you play or voice recording or something I can't keep up....and I'm reading not producing it [:)]

RaffleSnaffle -> RE: The Swarm (2/14/2011 10:23:52 PM)
YES! another great AAR!! [&o] and yeah share your secrets on how you possibly keep up with moment to moment happenings and make it soo interesting!

Bingeling -> RE: The Swarm (2/14/2011 10:28:45 PM)
I am a fast typer ;-) I had a class on writing on typewriters, electronic ones with a correction key. The subject was of course the touch method. The most useful class in school, just before computers became too common (we had one at home, though). Even if my typing today is not by the book, it is close enough to be quite effective... And I play quite a lot during the evening ;-) One computer, two displays. Typing in a word processor. Images saved to sub folders for each session, and inserted in the doc. Fast switching to type what happens on the other screen, and quick screen grabs. Then paste to forum post, upload images to photobucket, and fix the links. One pass through the text and remove a fraction of the messy wording I leave on my first try. This is done on the lap top while taking breaks (files are on a network drive). I am disappointed that the AI went back north with that fleet busting the monitoring station as I attacked his regional capital. It was just a tiny hop away, and they went home. That would never happen if it was me, my fleets can get stop-orders and turn. Excitement was that in losing it I did not see north of the area, so I could not see what it did until after my spy ratted on every move. I fear this game may become too easy quite fast. It was fun to have the juggernaut system as the bridge, but is not so good when you take it away from the AI. And if it was not a juggernaut system, there would not be a large space port with two defensive bases. Btw, my AI was not happy with the two I made myself, and built a third :) The life is quite different having stolen the galaxy map from a major empire, and knowing just about every colony that is more than 6 months old. In my last game I had to attack the little I knew about, here I can pick and choose my targets (but distances make the next ones quite clear). Also, my cashflow is positive. Maybe my starting position was too good, and even though I met the strongest AI empire first, progress has been good. But there is an awful lot of ships floating around their systems.

Bingeling -> RE: The Swarm (2/14/2011 10:57:47 PM)
I must admit that the wars did distract me. The colony that was put on my home cluster by the blues and that I conquered, have a gardens ruins giving 2% happiness bonus. I was puzzled at a very poor planet, the SW one with tech bonus to my empire. 11% quality rating or something. When shutting down now, I noticed that I have a source for zentiba fluid. Yes, it is that colony, the weird one. I did not get a message with "zentiba fluid found", probably because I got info about it from the galaxy map stealing... Not so strange life is good when I have one of the rares. If I was not so busy with wars I may even have noticed that several of my planets have 130 culture, which is only caused by access to one of the three rares...

RaffleSnaffle -> RE: The Swarm (2/15/2011 3:25:52 AM)
so is culture denoted by the musical note? I never knew what that musical note meant... and yeah the cluster maps are sometimes a lil easy so I know what you mean. does the AI get harder the more restless they are? or should I say aggressive? whatever that one slider is lol

RaffleSnaffle -> RE: The Swarm (2/15/2011 5:39:37 AM)
also, I can't believe all of those blue ships near your beachhead system in the northwest! WOW lol. Guess the Kiadans don't really care you just took one of their best systems? hehe I would be crappin ma pants if I saw that many ships just flyin by, [X(]

Data -> RE: The Swarm (2/15/2011 7:22:02 AM)
yes, the musical note is the culture rating aka development. I think only the tutorials give this info, it's easy to miss.

Bingeling -> RE: The Swarm (2/15/2011 7:57:57 AM)
I don't register that much info from he planet selection boxes. Mostly the smiley face, troops, population, buildings. Maybe resources too. Mostly things of military matter, though [8D]. To see culture, tax and such, I always view by my colony list, and click on them to see where they are. I as Kiadian I would also be more annoyed by the new, yellow colonies up north, while the AI ignores them. You may have noticed how much I loved that new Kiadian colony in my backyard. And I was not at all happy on the new human colony, and was very happy when it instantly went independent. Not independent for long of course, that is the NW colony on my home cluster. I suspect the AI don't have much of a concept of location at all. Another good feature of releasing transports on auto once they have dropped their load, is that someone is bound to be around somewhere. Which is nice once the odd colony rebels, a new enemy one is placed in your core, etc. That be said, this time I diverte 1/7th of the invasion fleet to clear up the matter, as it was launching its strike, but these bugs are not as wimpy as the Atuuk, so I don't need quite that bad attacker vs defender ratio, I hope. Also no defensive structure.

Bingeling -> RE: The Swarm (2/15/2011 7:06:31 PM)
There is no sign of the war ending, so life must go on. After having blue fleets roaming our countryside, the home areas are now safe apart from the odd pirate attack. With total overview of the blue from our spy, the chances for a surpise are also very slim. Especially since any fuel source for them coming our way will die soon enough. The south have been so pirate infested that two fleets have not been able to keep things alive, and have had to prioritise one gas mine by parking there. However, one pirate base was found to the south, and has been killed, and another NW of the southern cluster has a fleet heading for it. Previously some single pirate ships have of course also been killed. Hopefully things will quiet down so the region can prosper through some mining activities. Even though 10 explorers are kept up (new ones are booked by the AI as they die), little exploration goes on, they get sent mostly on war related missions. Maybe I should build the next ones at the south space port in the hope that they take the hint. The next stop has to be the blue systems, as the blue way is a cluster of their colonies, and the capital is among the close ones. I guess it is time to make the isolated north colonies a bit less isolated. As for fleets. Nebearch on the half way point got 8 shipyards, so there is no danger in sending destroyer fleets on the prowl. Dead ships require no maintenance, and there is plenty of money to buy new ones with. We will see how they like getting their precious main systems shot up. 20 should be a good raid size, nothing for the large space ports, but enough to scare their 20 ship fleets and some smaller hardware connected to colonies or their related mining bases. Not that we have moved so far as to study those systems yet. Local defense should be a few 4 ship fleets based on colonies and fuel sources. Hopefully pirate activity can be kept down. So far the empire is compact, and not so hard to defend. Until bases are spread thin, that is. They sure are not spread thin after being killed off by pirates and the blue menace. 2 fleets in the south. One on each end of the home cluster. Maybe one on the north of this, as hopefully lost mining bases are rebuilt. One or two at the central point, ready to strike at any new bases out west, or maybe even poke at systems with mining bases in their home area. The 3 northern upstart colonies are probably not in a good position for hosting small raider fleets for a while... The closest systems appear to be in good strike distance. Priority should be given to one with a good caslon source, if one exists. The capital system can be raided, but is not a conquest target for a long time yet. That gas mine on the half way point will get a run for its money. Approaching fleets better refuel before jumping there. Also, it would be nice to have a resupply ship ready with some fuel, in case the need arises, but I can not build one. The current size is 935, and max size for those kinds are 900. No cake for the design department this year. Also, no wonder why fuel may be scarce: [image]http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/h426/Bingeling/Swarm/Part3/FuelDemand.jpg[/image] This is the cargo from a gas mine just NW of the southern colonies (in a gas cloud). My space ports apart from my midway jewel all have 4 or so ships in building queue. Civilian stuff is clogging our space ports. How rude. And as if queues are not long enough, advisors want 44 escorts and 47 frigates. Not gonna happen! We found an abandoned base up north that helped us kill some pirates and also contained a bit of caslon. 1st fleet takes the chance to refuel there before it is scrapped, as right now the mood is not to let caslon get wasted. Caslon is THE highest demanded commodity in the galaxy. My demand 9,4k, the galactic demand 95,3k. The second largest galactic demand is at 12,3k.. I manually queue constructors for 6 or more cason sources in my home area. We get a peek at the Free Ugnari Consortium as their operations map is stolen. Most colonies got some 5 troops, and I see no really impressive fleets. Pirate ships are annoying to kill. We lack proper firepower, and they jump away. Things are very wrong as the invasion fleet needs to jump to help a mining station. The pirate escort of course... gets away. We relent and order 30 frigates so that maybe some are around when things happen. [image]http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/h426/Bingeling/Swarm/Part3/Resort.jpg[/image] Is it cruel to kill this? I thought not :) [image]http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/h426/Bingeling/Swarm/Part3/WhatTradeSanction.jpg[/image] [image]http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/h426/Bingeling/Swarm/Part3/DiplomacyGast.jpg[/image] And why do the blue, green and pink have gas reserved on my gas mine? What are trade sanctions good for? A subject to base discussion at cocktail parties on? I am sure my 30 frigates will do all kinds of good stuff for my gas situation, they need fuel too :) The Free Ugnari declar WAR, they say on the request of another empire. Considering the fuel situation, maybe relieving them of their burdensome eastern colonies would be a good next move. Attacks would then not need to come from the fuel strapped western jewel. The rude blues attack my explorers that are just taking a quick rest in the outskirts of their capital system. Over and over again. How to have a pirate escort killed: park a fleet of 4 destroyers on the exact top of a base. Wait for it to attack. Open fire with all four at once. Ordering our destroyers to fire at point blank range helps the pirate kill rate. Later it will mess up the space port kill rate... The Pinkies refuses our offer for a generously offered peace. If only we had some fuel we could go spank some enemy ass... The designers responsible for the design of RS-336 Mothership are lined up against the wall and shot. That worked, and soon we can make some. 3 are ordered like suggested. The reason is larger construction yards for some reason or another, I guess all those spy missions really do pay off, as I am pretty sure something else has been researched all the time. We discover a nasty blue constructor on the way to construct a new gas mine in the nebula west of Tebru (the jewel in the west). A small fleet is asked to refuel and go visit it. A pirate base surrenders in the north. With 27k caslon in store. Welcome! The ships are sent to retire. Later examination shows that it has a gas extractor and is an armed mining base with some construction stuff added. Nasty humans put another colony in our home system. We got a mining base in that system, and the arrivals are indeed human, so probably no instant, nice independence movement this time. [image]http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/h426/Bingeling/Swarm/Part3/12thOntheMove.jpg[/image] The 12th fleet of 20 destroyers, selected at Tebro in the top, heads for the Pakri system, the rightmost of the two pinks to make a mess. The 1st fleet of similar 20 destroyers also finally found fuel, and heads for the other one visible on the left edge, although that one does not appear to be target rich. It can be observedin the gas fields a bit south of Tebru, as is the 8th fleet heading straight west to disappoint the Blues building a new gas mine. Kez Teklor infiltrates the Pinkies, and reveal all their plans. Zerolast on the west actually got a medium space port. And 8 troops. A puny 84 firepower will be its doom. The other one (pakri system) got a small space port with 60 firepower. Invasion fleet moves to the monitoring station to get closer to the action... birds of prey are on the move. It still has 7 troop carriers and 35 troops. This makes a bell chime, and the 7 new built some time ago are now full and makes up Invasion 2. A pink constructor moves towards my area to build a mining base. The local fleets can hardly wait! The first resupply ship deploys at a gas cloud out west. Crazy humans offer to lift trade sanctions in exchange for our mining base in the system they so rudely entered. Such stupidity, such rudeness! Who need researchers when they got a hyper active spy organization? The medium space port at Zerolast was so easy to kill that it happened while we organized the slaying of the nasty blue construction ship in the gas cloud. It has previously escaped two assaults, now it is dead. 1st Fleet continue to clean the environment in that system. [image]http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/h426/Bingeling/Swarm/Part3/12thAttack.jpg[/image] The 12th are nice enough to give a photo opportunity as they jump the lesser space port at Pakri system. Although lesser, the two are so puny that they almost count for the same. Invasion fleet has forgotten to move. Two transports are split to attack pakri 1. The other 5 go for the main planet (out of two) in the Zerolast system. The 19th pink strike force is heading into Zerolast with two ships. 1st is eagerly awaiting their arrival. The Leentaar, some Light brown furry guys, declare WAR. War has ended with the Blue Menace, but we still got some entertainment. Not much has happened with the Blues for a while anyways, other than messing with their bases and killing one constructor. [image]http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/h426/Bingeling/Swarm/Part3/DiplomacyAfterBlueWar.jpg[/image] A Leentaar destroyer attacks bases north of our home world. A selection of ships is mustered to try get rid of him. About our offensive moves: [image]http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/h426/Bingeling/Swarm/Part3/TacticalOverview.jpg[/image] 1st Fleet got a visitor (just a couple ships) and is low on fuel. Resupply 3 moves south to deploy, I think in the system with the pink mine south of the Red System. 12th fleet watch over their system. Invasion fleet zooms in on Zerolast top left, while the 19th fleet has two transports heading for the planet in the Paakri system in the middle. Invasion 2 is way behind in case some more troops are needed, for instance for the second Zerolast planet. North of this area is Tebru, and some way north of Zerolast the Resupply 1 fleet has deployed on a gas cloud. As it deploys, Resupply 3 is assaulted by a silly frigate. 117 firepower is not so great, but 2480 shields should work well. Frigate dies. Freighters are attacked around the new enemy colonies, far to the south west. Spam, spam, spam. Invasion fleet drops its load, is out of fuel, and goes to Resupply 3 to refuel. Resupply 3 is a good honey pot for single ships to kill. The two transports of the 19th are released and asked to mind their own business. We fail to infiltrate the Leentaar. Our agents are 4 agents at 400, and one at 264, as well as 3 noobs. Paakri 1 falls, and we gain a colony income bonus of 3% from our weird new inhabitants (Wekkarus). 1st Fleet goes to refuel at the local resupply ship. Three ships of invasion two leave the fleet to assault Zerolast 2 (the lesser one) that has about 4-5 troops. Zerolast 1 falls with none of our ships witnessing the action. The 1st fleet is refueling. The small 8th fleet kill a mining base in the north clouds (compared to their former colonies). Why do the enemy bases take an eternity to finish from four destroyers, while mine fall like flies to a pirate escort? [&:] The 1st human fleet with 14 ships and 13 troops are heading south to turn the red planet in the previous image light blue. The 3 ships sent to attack Zerolast 2 rebelled and went to refuel at the resupply ship. [image]http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/h426/Bingeling/Swarm/Part3/LocalAction.jpg[/image] All our forces refuel at the resupply ship. The 1st fleet is about to launch north to eat that strike fleet refuling on a gas mine a short way north. The 1st fleet of the humans descend on their red victim. We can see that zerolast 2 has started building a medium space port. The military triangle of ours that way is the 3 transport that defected to the resupply ship, now full of caslon and on the right track to zerolast 2. The destroyer of the light brown that annoyed us back home have not been heard from. Either the defenders killed it (not likely), or it ran out of fuel and limped home (more likely). An ugnari colony ship is built for an ice planet in my southern provinces. A large space port was ordered for Zerolast 1. The brownies refuse our peace offer. Too bad as they are hard to reach. [image]http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/h426/Bingeling/Swarm/Part3/BattleOverview.jpg[/image] Invasion 2 launches from the resupply mess in the south to attack the northern Ugnari colony (far away). The next one in line is their capital which hurts a bit much for a 20 ship destroyer fleet with its large space port and 3 defensive bases. Resupply 1 and the 8th fleet (who just killed a mining base and some military ships) are seen north of our new colonies. And of course, the jewel of the west, our first conquest is the one top right. A Leentaar destroyer arrives at the gas mine that is location for the battle mess in the south. They are mighty ships of 102 firepower and 980 shields. It is a pain to kill with our underpowered non-torpedo destroyers. [image]http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/h426/Bingeling/Swarm/Part3/LeentaarDestroyer.jpg[/image] But it does die in the end... Beware if the swarm! Zerolast 2 falls, and the whole system is ours. An enemy frigate badly damages the zerolast 1 space port which is under construction, but 1st fleet arrives to save the ruins. It had to leave the fighting party at the now destroyed gas mine to be there on time. We are confused about what to do to the under construction medium space port we inherited on Zerolast 2, and hope some nasties arrives to kill it. The Faltir Empire (mortalen, red) impose trade sanctions. Considering they live in the far north west, they would be annoying to fight. Some stats for my readers as there is less action. We are assaulting the northern pink with overwhelming forces. Our treasure pile is at 1,7m, cashflow at impressive 166k, and bonus income at a nice 63k. 55K resort income. Maybe the assault on that blue luxury retreat ages ago benefits us [:D]. Reputation has fallen from admired to dubious, and I have no clue when and how. Lots of attack spam makes it hard to see all events, wildlife also contribute, as do freighters in far away lands being attacked. Maybe me grabbing colonies makes the others worried. They should be. On the diplomatic front, the Ugnari would require 1,1K to end war, the Zenox of Leentaar 1M. [image]http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/h426/Bingeling/Swarm/Part3/GalaxyOverview.jpg[/image] Those are the enemy systems marked. The northeastern pinkie is pure yellow very soon. The new easternmost pinkie is the capital system. Our Zenox enemies are far away. The blue system east of our new colonies is shared with the greens, but the green trade line is hard to see. And the colony ship is aiming for the marker position, 60% quality with vodkol and terralion down. The 20th pink strike force moves north to go to Ixudeen 1, the newly conquered colony that is the north pink on this picture. The 9th fleet with 4 destroyers eagerly awaits their probably out of fuel arrival. The 12th fleet (with 19 survivors) moves to execute the last pink mining stations in the south by the use of excessive force. The Zenox 1st fleet lands at paakri. Nasty surprises arrive when you don't succed in planting spies. 21 ships, including powerful known destroyers and at least two cruisers (216 firepower and 1470 shield, 467 size). Hopefully they are soon out of fuel, and goes home... I doubt that I have any chance of matching that even with the two southern fleets combined strength. Some 15ish zenox troops conquer Paakri 1. A frigate arrives and confirm 13 defending troops after the fighting is over (the two defenders did not slow them much). The good thing about this is that the monitoring station outside is not wasted, as the system is no longer mine [:'(] Design has not taken a hint from the Zenox display of destroyer power, and our design with 45 firepower is still valid. As usual all empires are at war with someone. Agent captured trying to infiltrate the Leentaar. Sigh. It is hard to wage war without perfect intelligence. Ask the Atuuk. The 9th fleet are disappointed, their victims fled so soon. They go to refuel at the northern resupply ship. Pirate activity has cooled down a lot. A nice time for a break arrives. Invasion fleet is at 15 troops with 3 full transports. Too little to assault the furries. A decision must be done as to action, but taking Paakri back should be nr 1, and then do something nasty to a Zenox place back at their home. The large space port at Zerolast 1 is complete, and just has to charge its shields. Our large space ports have 4960 shield, 704 firepower, and none of the area weapons we make sure to research. Economy is at 1,9M with 162k cashflow. Galaxy map, diplomacy and ship overview follow: [image]http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/h426/Bingeling/Swarm/Part3/DiplomacyAtEnd.jpg[/image] [image]http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/h426/Bingeling/Swarm/Part3/GalaxyEnd.jpg[/image] [image]http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/h426/Bingeling/Swarm/Part3/Ships.jpg[/image] PS: It is wonderful what 6-10 new caslon mines and two resupply ships do for a problematic fuel situation

Bingeling -> RE: The Swarm (2/15/2011 7:07:17 PM)
Crazy long entry, and only 2-3 hours of play. This is much more work when intelligence section does it job and reveals the enemy forces.

RaffleSnaffle -> RE: The Swarm (2/16/2011 3:48:47 AM)
"If only we had some fuel we could go spank some enemy ass... The designers responsible for the design of RS-336 Mothership are lined up against the wall and shot. That worked, and soon we can make some." LOL! I am still giggling.

Bingeling -> RE: The Swarm (2/16/2011 8:54:49 AM)
It is easy to figure out one's options as long as one does not have a lot of them... Two wars, the Zenox and the Ugnari. Light brown and pink ones. And my rule of not going for the capitals early. Next in line for the pink is the capital system, a very good one with 3 planets at that. A tempting target is the main hub a bit further away, out which is in the middle of nowhere. That is right, in the middle of nowhere regarding known fuel supplies as well. A gas cloud to the NW of it has some caslon, tough. Taking back what the furries stole is a given, though. The Zenox now has 10M as a trade value for peace, so they need some help understanding that the war should end. So, wait for the troop transports to fill a bit, then hit the furries. The last resupply ship is moved to my new SW corner to be ready to deploy... somewhere... Oh, and the human 1st fleet is moving to attack and Atuuk mining base in the system of my SE corner colony. How sad! Leentaar response to a state peace proposal: "Absolutely not! Mercy for you � we have none! Annihilate you we must". We will remember those words, military at twice our strength or not... The new Zerolast 1 space port starts to build 40 new destroyers. One never know when they may come in handy. Looking for them in the ship list to have them put into a new fleet, uncovers quite a lot of former pirate vessels that have snuck in. They are sent for retirement at our shipyards. Zenox frigates outgun our destroyers. Life is not fair... Two Zenox destroyers attack Zerolast 1 space port, at third may be on its way. 12th fleet of 20 ships lends a hand. Dang, if I had a fleet of 12 of those large space ports flying around, the Zenox destroyers would not look so scary. The first fleet with a full 18 ships, however, does look scary. 1st fleet is called in from the resupply ship to the south. Invasion fleet was heading that way, they are rerouted. [image]http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/h426/Bingeling/Swarm/Part4/ZenoxAttack.jpg[/image] The first fleet arrives as the space port explodes, so much for 40 destroyers being built there :) [image]http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/h426/Bingeling/Swarm/Part4/ZenoxAttack2.jpg[/image] The 1st and 12th fleets are joined to focus fire under one command. [image]http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/h426/Bingeling/Swarm/Part4/FirstViewInvasion.jpg[/image] The first view of enemy troops on the planet is not so scary, but there may be more to come... I feel good about my earlier actions of intercepting automatic troop transports on their way here, and send them back towards the capital to try again. 37 ships chase the cruiser Olaviarria, being the flagship of the attacking fleet. It jumps away once shields are low, grrr, single destroyers are picked. And the sneaky Olavarria comes back with full shields [:(] They did land a bit more troops, but still not enough. 13 remaining (out of 39) 1st fleet ships jump out as fuel tanks are empty after a long battle. We may have lost the battle, but we will win the war... We hope. We can see that their 1st fleet has order to attack Zerolast 2 space port, a medium one never finished and inherited from the previous owners. Why can we see that? Our guy succeeded in infiltrating them. They have increased the fleet size to 20. It has 2036 power. That would be 2036/45 of my destroyers... The answer is that 46 of them would give me a tiny advantage. Ouch. Swarm indeed. An error of calculation makes me go a bit over the top... I manually book 40 destroyers at the Jewel in the west. I then book 100 more over the order interface. If you got 2.2 million in the treasure chest and almost 100k cashflow suprlus, you DO have 2.2 million in the treasure chest and a cashflow suprlus... The 1st fleet is of course their main fleet. As far as I can see the rest are 7 or less with some 700 and lower firepower. The construction of 140 destroyers are distributed as 16 on each small space port (2 yards), 31 at the medium at home (4 yards) and 61 at the large one (8 yards). So 8 full capacity runs at each shipyard. Yay. The unbuilt at each location are put in new location based fleets to keep track of them. As 1 ground attacker remains, I book a bunch of new troops at zerolast 1. And 8 new to strengthten the 8 at zerolast 2. Invasion fleet bears down on Paakri. For the second time. New management, though. The first completion round of destroyers is quite spammy. They may go on a long time, it is not given the space ports have enough materials. Our alternative research by spying goes on, lots of incoming knowledge all the time. As the enemy 1st fleet move south, they meet destroyers of the same fleet going the opposite way. Interesting interpretation of the order "Assemble and attack" An enemy strike force is attacking Ulabrea 1. Yes, that is the zentiba fluid planet. They have 2 troops, on 5 ships with 480 fire power. I have a single troop on ulabrea 1, a bit less than desired. I gather the remaining transports and send them in that general direction (5 with 25 troops), now declared Invasion 2. We muster any ship of war that is remotely close, some 26 of them with 978 firepower, and tell them to move to the planet. The far from complete zerolax 2 space port is attacked by the destroyers previously seen head north. No helpers are present... There is a race to be first at ulabrea 1. All yellow triangles visible are going that way. Apart from top one that refuels. No dinner for you! [image]http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/h426/Bingeling/Swarm/Part4/RaceToTheline.jpg[/image] There is a destroyer and cruiser with one troop each incoming. We must try kill the destroyer. Paakri falls. The insane minds at foreign part of the hive have offered them a peace that is rejected. Peace? Now? With no gains? Insane! Otrageous! The Ulbarea defenders can't help the two troops being dropped. Have the enemy not heard of "invide when clear" when it comes to cruisers and destroyers? And why can't our plasters scratch zenox shields? The loss of Ulabrea 1 is a temporary setback. The attackers return home, and invasion 2 changes course slightly to move for invasion. The Ugnari 1st fleet descend on Ixudeen 1, the northernmost colony taken from them. They must have poor intelligence, as they arrive with 4 troops. The colony has 20 high quality defenders... Blue fleets of the Gundagale goes to refuel at the Ugnari capital waaay south. I have solved my fuel issues, others obviously still has their's. Full of optimism we start building the suggestes MSP on Zerolast 1. I suspet it may not get old. Ulabrea 1 is again under correct leadership. The remants of the 1st (and 12th) fleets mop up some furry mining bases in the fighting area. Fortified bunkers have been researched (or more likely, blueprints have been stolen) and are now arriving at our colonies. Handy. The destroyers are complete, several places have immediate caslon shortages for some reason... We have a brand spanking new colony in the southern lands, on the cluster inhabited by the nasty furries. I wonder how old that will become... Grumpy rivals complain about our intelligence mission. I have no clue why... Our insider in the Leentaar was caught :( A new monitoring station near the furry homeland is assaulted by the nasty 1st fleet. The second one down there is also killed. Even if fuel problems are mostly over, it is hard to move 140 new destroyers to the front, they make fuel problems show up where none have been seen for ages. If I lose my insider, and they kill both my monitoring stations. How will I know what they are up to? Hmm. I try not to worry... My new southern colony, too insignificant to even get a screenshot, is assaulted by the mighty 1st fleet and lost. We have stolen our way to larger construction sizes. If we want to we can build cruisers. 113 firepower, 930 shields, but oh so incredibly fast! Laughable, I say, laughable. How about putting som firepower on our ships? For now it is decided that we don't want any cruisers. 14000 caslon on the refuel ship, 240 on each destroyer... that is 58 full ones. And I have only 25 on my way. Looking good! 4 attackers to Ixudeen 1 have been fended off by our 20 defenders. Still 20 defenders, but now a bit stronger. Please bring more, this is better than our training camps! Our resupply fleet near Paakri is assaulted by the 1st fleet and killed, and the refuelers nearby can little do but flee. The enemy fleet next target a gas mining station out in a cloud where another resupply ship is, and this ship takes a hasty retreat to a more northern gas cloud where the third resupply is already handing out fuel. TD481 gas cloud SW of Tebru is going to see a giant gathering of destroyers... I wish some of those agents under cover were counter espionaging just now, as the precision of furry attacks have been scary. Now I know how the Gundagale felt :-/ A steady stream of Atuuks trying to infiltrate us are caught. The zenox are cocky and refuse peace. They will not be so cocky if this gang gets fueled and find that first fleet. We hope... [image]http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/h426/Bingeling/Swarm/Part4/JustNow.jpg[/image] Just now it would be kind of nice if that first fleet came to kill my resupply ships. On that picture is 169 ships with 7740 firepower. Two resupply ships are included... Most of teh 169 destroyers are merged into the 1st fleet. Gex Mokkodis evaded detection after failing to infiltrate the Atuuk. Now he tries the Leentaar, which is a much better idea. My 1st fleet has 159 destroyers with 7146 firepower. Gex finally infiltrates the furries, and he reveals that the opponents 1st fleet is refueling with its 2084 fire power (20 ships). They have 12 troops. I am excited to see their next order :-) It is an interesting situation with the Atuuk blockading mining bases in my home system. 40 more destroyers are built there to be sure. Did I mention that I started another 40 at the jewel in the west too? The enemy 1st fleet is up to 25 troops. At least some of them are roboGuards and hopefully not that powerful. Paakri 1 got 32 troops. Zerolast 1 has 29, and Zerolast 2 22. And they have fortified bunkers. We are not that scared of that 1st fleet... What will they do? The answer is attack Zerolast 3 gas mining station. 1st fleet takes a refuel order to top up, and prepares a welcoming committee. They are a fair bit north. The 22nd fleet arrives, and adds 16 ships and 720 firepower to the mix. 1st fleet get the order "move to zerolast 3 gas mining station, engage system targets" [image]http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/h426/Bingeling/Swarm/Part4/OnTheHunt.jpg[/image] We can see the 1st badguy fleet at the lower left with their attack vector. We see the resupply fleet(s) in the top right, two resupply ships/fleets are next to each other in that cloud. 1st fleet has launched and will get to the gas mine first. If only we had a ship with a hyperDeny... On the other hand, 150 destroyers pounding should go from 20% shield to dead quite fast. Faster than a hyper jump, hopefully. Stupid Gundagale declare WAR, the old blue menace. Just because we do the odd intelligence mission and have taken their jewel, how childish. Colonies rebel, the northern ones have let in Kiadians. The jewel rebels, but has a good amount of soldiers. About even lines, my troops on the ground there are 12800 strength, the rebels are 8900. The Atuuk also declare WAR. One could almost hope the foreign affairs part could get us away from some. A gas mine gets friendly visitors. [image]http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/h426/Bingeling/Swarm/Part4/Welcome.jpg[/image] The pink 1st fleet gathers to attack the same mine. The more the merrier. Careful that we are, we send 2 troop transports to unlad at Nebearc... One of the northerns went independent. Another defects to the blues. The war with the pinkies are over. No visit from them at the mine above. The furries refuse peace, they will regret that when arriving at the above location. Their capital ship, the Stalker of Rioss will be first arrival. 175 destroyers attack. [image]http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/h426/Bingeling/Swarm/Part4/Attack.jpg[/image] If this don't work... we are in trouble and will need a new strategy. We are in trouble, they don't stick to targeting. The game is a slide show... They jump after my small fleet at Pakri. Bah. I am not sure we even did scratch a single shield below 90%, but it was hard to see... The enemy will kill not find that 4 ship fleet at Paakri 1, kill the monitoring station outside, and return home for fuel. A nasty blue fleet with some 20 ships is on attack vector to zerolast 1 space port. We welcome them, and actually manage to kill a few ships, but not many. The space port survives. Peace is made with the Gundagale. This was indeed as short war. We ate some mining bases, they failed to kill a space port. We lose a couple of colonies in the northern, forgotten reaches. It is hard to keep up... [image]http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/h426/Bingeling/Swarm/Part4/Diplomacy.jpg[/image] That would make two wars. You can see our spy school being active... I am sure the Faltir, Shandar and Wekkarus would be insulted if the knew our levels of ignoring them.

Bingeling -> RE: The Swarm (2/16/2011 7:51:21 PM)
Time to reconsider, so far we have learnt that 170 ship destroyer fleets are no good. We tidy up our forces. The giant 1st fleet is split into several pieces, 3 fleets of 40 ships, and some fleets of 4... New fleet structure. Resupply 1 - 3. Three fleets of one resupply ship each. Destroyer 1 - 5. Five fleets of 40 destroyers each. Raider 1 � 11. Elleven fleets of 4 destroyers each, although one has a frigate include, and another has only 3 ships after a raid to the south. 16 destroyers are released on auto. The empire has 262 destroyers. New times, new solutions. Nebearc space port at our jewel in the west is asked to produce 20 cruisers of the Srinagar II class to make up cruiser 1. All troop transports are asked to retrofit, in case there is something new to be had... A small Atuuk fleet heads to our southern reaches, but it is hard to say if they are after us or the humans down there. The host of destroyers formerly in 1st fleet are back at the resupply ship, now as multiple fleets. The enemy 1st fleet is heading back to Zerolast 2 with 29 troops. On the planet is 22 with fortified bunker. The defenders are weak locals with less than 8000 strength. Two of the new destroyer fleets, and the new cruiser fleet heads down. The cruisers may be a bit late, and one destroyer fleet may be sent away. 20 cruisers and 44 destroyers lie in wait for the dreaded 1st fleet. Priority: Kill troop transports. This time the difference is huge. Early to die is their capital ship, not dented the last time. Troop transports are burnt down. One destroyer may or may not have dropped 1 troop on the planet. The space port on Zerolast 1 dies from the cruisers, but is an acceptable loss. Two surviving cruiser steam to paakri to attack the raider fleet stationed there. Cruiser 1 is in pursuit, still with all 20 ships. Destroyer 5 has all 40 destroyers alive after the battle too. The two cruiser die at their destination after mauling the poor raider fleet. The 1st zenox fleet is no more. Cruiser with some torpedo and fighter bays sure helps. Atuuk attack a mining base on the western part of the home cluster, with a decent sized fleet. Destroyer 4 moves to lie in wait. The base dies (impossible to prevent), and a lot of Atuuk die, and the rest moves on to another mining base. Destroyer 4 in pursuit. Raiders attack some Atuuk and Zenox bases. A refueling station below Zerolax and Paakri is on my hit list, but it has huge traffic, and I need a free fleet with Power. Resupply 3, the new one, is about to depoloy where it predecessor was killed, in the central conflict area around Paakri. Paakri 1 is attacked by the Atuuk from the refueling stop I want to kill to the south. Cruiser 1 has just left to refuel at the newly deployed resupply ship. I doupt anyone can interfere, and will kill the refuling base of the zenox instead. Or not. There is a base there, and a resupply ship. But the ship is Gundagale (blue). Hm. Another 20 cruisers are built at the jewel to make up Cruiser 2. Two big Atuuk attack fleets are incoming to bust mining bases, the ones dropping cannon fodder at Paakri 1 continue to the home cluster. The 18th zenox fleet with 14 ships and 1488 firepower is on its way to attack Resupply. Darn spy! Cruiser 1 goes to refuel there in wait. Destroyer 5 with 40 destroyers is already reafuling there. Invasion 2 picks up all remaining 13 troop transports and moves towards the Jewel, ready to strike somewhere. It is hard to be Cruiser 1. First wait for attack on our resupply ship, then go kill Atuuk resupply ship. The Attack is nicely repelled, only to frigates run off. Next mission is the resupply ship, which is impossible to target for attack as there are both a Kiadian and Ungari resupply ship on top of it. Cruiser 1 moves there to auto attack. It also finds two 10-ish size fleets refuling, and kill them. These have wrecked havoc on the mining bases back home. Also, the blues and pinks present are not harmed in the experiment, and no diplomatic complaints arise. The two fleeing frigates regroup to attack my research station nearby. Destroyer 5 moves to lie in wait, and kills them before they can do harm. The Leentaar Empire (Furries) gets the hint and signs a peace treaty. Cruiser One attacks the 60th fleet and also finds an Atuuk resupply ship hiding under a Gundagale one. 17 troops on board the 60th are also lost for the Atuuk. Cruiser 2 is finished. Both cruiser fleets have 15+ troops on board. Cruiser 2 moves to attack the eastern Atuuk colony. Their arrival is less than stellar, they were not gathered. Ooops. Not that it helps the colony. Cruiser 2 retrieve some 12 troops and look for fuel which is far away. Preparation to move a resupply ship northwards are made. Several raider fleets have stabbed at mining bases and taken some casualties. No worries, we got a good supply of destroyers and some deaths are ok. The map. [image]http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/h426/Bingeling/AtuukEnemyMap.jpg[/image] A large space port has min manually ordered at Zerolast (the top left of the two central ones). The AI is a bit reluctant due to negative cash flow from the ship ordering bonanza. The true cashflow is positive. The area of that central cluster have been the focus of fighting, and the resupply ships busted have been to the areas further south. The colony taken by cruiser 2 is the top right with the monitoring stations around. We can see that Atuuk is not intermingled with my northern properties. They have one east of Paakri (and Zerolast), but it is a shared system with Gundaglade, and I am not so keen. They also have grabbed a planet in the Ungari capital system, and have one far out west. My eyes have not been on affairs up there, things have been more critical central and at home. We can see that I share a system with them. I got a puny little rock there, while the Atuuk got a large space port on a very nice planet. A logical next step. As long as my fleet refuels (fuel is not critical, but distant). The swarm backs off, I need to have more cruisers to compete. I need some destroyers to die, so some 40 destroyer fleets should find some space ports.

Bingeling -> RE: The Swarm (2/16/2011 8:05:45 PM)
This will be the last proper update to this game. It is way, way too hectic to run AAR-style. What have happened? Two resupply ships set up camp in the north, around my most northern colony. 2-3 destroyer fleets have had some fun, and cruiser 1 and later cruiser 2 have had action too. Good fun as long as there is only one war... The planet in the shared system is taken. I munch enemy mining bases... So, just as I grab that planet (after having blasted the space port), they invade the other planet in the system. Sigh, I defended the wrong planet... Then the Blue menance, and the lighter blue human declares war. The blue menace strikes fast and hard, and things are chaotic. Places rebel again. This will be extremely annoying as long as I don't control diplomacy myself. It is so much easier if you jump than if get jumped, and 2-3 enemies got more fleets to throw at you. And compared to the last one... they do indeed throw fleets. Not that I can't match them, but just as they can't be present to stop mine, I can't be present to stop them. Now a good size (not giant) blue fleet is heading for the gas mine at the midway jewel. And the two raider fleets with a total of 6 destroyer present won't stop them Am I better? Not really. Cruiser 2 was on their way back north to take another atuuk colony when the declarations came. They diverted to a Kiadian system with a large space port and 2 or 3 defensive bases. They won... at the loss of 2-3 cruisers... They have not done that to me yet, but every mining base is a loss :) Oh, and the nasty blues ate my central resupply ship. I made revenge by eating theirs... As long as I can keep their advancing fuel sources at bay, and keep my resupply ships alive, I should be able to strangle them on fuel. The trick is keeping a resupply ship alive against a decent fleet. They will focus on their target, and you have to kill them before they kill their objective. And that is not so easy...

RaffleSnaffle -> RE: The Swarm (2/17/2011 5:14:55 AM)
I get what you are saying about it being too compex to keep going. As it saddens me I understand. I could not do this in the least lol. I wanna try my hand at doing an AAR, but I think I would do mine in a small galaxy. Any tips for doing an AAR? Like what's the best alternative to photobucket for uploading screenshots? Thanks Bing!

Bingeling -> RE: The Swarm (2/17/2011 8:34:50 AM)
You may want to go AAR on a level above single fleets killing an enemy mining base. But that require that you do a bit more hindsight than "as you go", as you can't really see what is core until later. Photobucket worked ok for me, but I have never tried any others. I have not had a habit of putting images on the web. You could write the post as you go. All you really need is the "image" tag around your images, and you don't need the button to insert that. So you could prepare all in your editor of choice. What I did was writing in a word processor. I saved images in a new folder for each session, and uploaded to new "albums" for each session. To make them easier to find. The issue is with finding the right of the 3 diplomacy screen shots in one session... One trick here, apart from sensible file names, is to sort your local folder on Date Modified. As long as you write as you go, you will have the same order of those file as you have in your local document... And you can check which filename is next, which is also the name on the image on photobucket. Btw, I broke yesterday and made peace with the humans. I paid 10k... Of my 2.6 million. It is harder than I thought to keep colonies in enemy territory. They are a sneaky bunch! I plan a colony. Citizens of the systems around migrate there, and outnumber my guys. I end up at war with the other guys in the area, the citizens (migrants) on my colony rebel. It is rude, I say. Close the borders!

gwgardner -> RE: The Swarm (2/20/2011 2:17:21 AM)
Your two AAR have been the most interesting to me. Playing with and against the AI. On a technical note: why the need for an image server? You can upload to this Matrix forum, no?

Bingeling -> RE: The Swarm (2/20/2011 10:21:15 AM)
As far as I know, you can only attach one image to the message through the forum. Which does not work so well for an AAR. Leaving important stuff to the AI makes some interesting issues. They played out so very different, with a disliked race that grabbed all the info in the world in the second game, while the first had a war mongering bunch that did not have a clue of their surroundings. The game is much easier too if you can adjust the stupidity of the AI. Their tax strategies are not brilliant. As far as I could see the Gizzies in this game had medical facilities and recreation centers only one their large space port. And the home world had a medium one... At the same time, now I want a proper game in full control, the trick is not to steamroll. And I really want the patch that fixes space port issues for the AI first...

Nibelung44 -> RE: The Swarm (2/21/2011 4:34:34 PM)
When you say the game is a slide show, you refer to your FPS?

Merker -> RE: The Swarm (3/6/2011 5:36:16 PM)
Yo, mighty Bingeling! Now that the new patch is out, any AARs in the making? I love your AARs, addicting and funny, especially when talking about the AI tactics. Inspired me in the making of the Pirates of Pestulon! AAR. Cheers

Data -> RE: The Swarm (5/19/2011 9:05:19 PM)
Second that, Binge....when we'll we see you back at it? [:)]

Bingeling -> RE: The Swarm (6/19/2011 6:44:39 PM)
Me back? I can see I have not played since April 7th (the time stamp on save files rats on me). The last game was a manual arachnid game where the big menace disappointed me and never made their presence known. The hard thing is to get a game going. And once you get it goping, you will "win" after a while, and they become boring and just a chore (mopping up). As for writing AARs, the early game benefits from one style, and this style breaks down with "traffic". Once you no longer have a tiny corner (or a larger one) of the galaxy you need to move to a higher level of descriptions, and this is not so easy :) It is maybe easier to keep things quiet enough if you don't have the AI run diplomacy... I see there is some teasers out for a new expansion. Clear signs of mod support being in focus. That should make for some nice games. I doubt I will play until the expansion (which I hope will come this year), and I am not sure I will ever write another AAR. But you never know.

Data -> RE: The Swarm (6/19/2011 6:46:07 PM)
quote: But you never know. That's for sure.....hopefully [:)]

Page: [1]

Forum Software © ASPPlayground.NET Advanced Edition 2.4.5 ANSI

0.84375