krakr

Join Date 08/2006

AAR: The Invasion

So far I've been loving this game and I just fought the best, biggest, most dynamic, non-scripted battle ever. I'm still playing, the game is on random 10 player, single player, 5 stars, 102 planets(I know, I'm insane). I played as TEC. after about 3 1/2 hours into the game, all hell brakes loose faster than WWII.

I'm doing pretty well for myself, with 13 colonies and ranked number 1 in all 3 major categories, Military, Empire and Economy. I had been in a war with my closest rivals, the Adjun Imperials (Visari) and I had nearly eliminated them. They were a thorn in my side since I started and I had them down to their last planetoid after sacking their homeworld.

I thought that I had a strong ally in the Galan Rim Union (TEC) we had all the treaties we could. I guess I thought wrong, though. 5 of us had been stuck in the same star together and he was conspiring behind my back with the Voice of Senar (Advent). When all of a sudden he declared war on me. I should have seen this sooner as the Advent had a massive fleet gathering in an asteroid field one jump away from my border world, Deinaka. I responded by creating the 3rd fleet and stationing it there. It consisted of a Devon battle cruiser and my flagship Kol class battle ship named Agamemnon.

The Advent attacked Deinaka first, with a massive fleet consisting of many fighters and bombers. My planet lacked anti fighter defenses but I thought that the 3rd fleet could force them to retreat. Then the TEC jumped in, it must have been everything that they could muster because my screen was almost entirely filled with orange. Like any sane commander would do, I withdrew 3rd fleet and was forced to abandon the planet. It never stood a chance.

The 3rd fleet fell back to Gaea, a Volcanic planet that bordered Deinaka but only had 2 jump lanes leading to it. This was my major staging planet and the gateway to my empire, if I lose Gaea, I lose the game. This forced me to withdraw the 1st and 2nd fleets away from the war with the Vasari. I had just defeated their main fleet and sacked their homeworld, they weren't a threat any more.

The plan was to have 3rd fleet hold at Gaea where I could constantly build reinforcements from it's 2 light factories and capital ship factory while the 1st and 2nd fleets maneuvered around to Deinaka and hit them from the rear.

Just as I had suspected, they moved on Gaea next. The Advent attacked first sending their massive amounts of fighters at me. I prepared for this and built 7 hangars and lots of flak frigates to deal with them. Without fighter protection, their carriers and capital ships fell easily to the 3rd fleet. I utterly crushed the Advent's invasion force but it was far from over, the TEC easily had twice as many ships as the Advent.

So I waited, I knew the TEC were going to attack but they seemed to hesitate, this gave my 1st and 2nd fleets time to get in position. They were still 2 jumps away when the attack began. The TEC jumped into Gaea and easily outnumbered my 3rd fleet 3:1, and those weren't fighters either. He had around 5 capital ships and too many support ships. Luckily I had technology on my side. My ships were faster, had better armor and more firepower.

The 1st and 2nd fleet jumped into Deinaka where a small fleet of TEC were guarding their new planet. Around 2 capital ships and a few support ships were guarding it. I left 2nd fleet there to deal with it and had 1st fleet jump to Gaea.

Moments after 1st fleet jumped into Gaea, the computer must have thought, "OH SH**!

I'm surrounded!" and he began to retreat back to Deinaka. I ordered both 1st and 3rd fleets to pursue. His ships jumped way before mine did because they weren't set to jump together. So for a moment, 2nd fleet was on its own against the TEC fleet while my other two fleets positioned to jump.

As soon as they did, the TEC retreated again and fled back to his territory. I wasn't sure if I had taken out any of his capital ships but I destroyed numerous support ships and he was obviously more scared than a little school girl after seeing a spider.

And so I repelled the invasion. That was the most exciting battle I've ever had in an RTS game, It seemed almost scripted. I'm going to try and record a video of the battles and post them on Youtube or something, stay tuned.

Best thing about it is that I didn't lag at all during those battles running at max settings, here are my specs:

Intel Q6600 OC'ed to 3.0Ghz
Nvidia Geforce 8800 GT 512MB
2GB ram
Windows Vista.

I'm sure I'll have many more battles like that as there are still 8 other players left

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Blair Fraser

Join Date 10/2006

+292

Keep us posted krakr! Its stories like these that helped inspired us to make this game in the first place

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Awesome story. Its amazing how well the AI is playing. Most games I have played the AI usually just sits around despite the odds against them.

Cant wait for the next battle.

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Awesome story. Its amazing how well the AI is playing. Most games I have played the AI usually just sits around despite the odds against them.

Cant wait for the next battle.

Yeah the AI is great. It makes balanced fleets, alliances with other AI's and they don't all gang up on you as long as you play your diplomacy right. It's much better than beta 4, it's actually a challenge. And I was playing on medium.

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Here is a screen shot of the invasion force

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Nice story, 103 planets eh? Well at least your colony ships won't get bored

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The Counter Attack

With the Galan Rim Union reeling in defeat, I proceeded to launch an offensive against his worlds. Our Empires were separated by an asteroid belt which had 4 jump lanes. Two of them lead to his worlds.

First things first, the TEC and Advent controlled that asteroid belt so I had to secure that before moving on to his planets. I researched the final cap ship and fleet logistics techs and began building a 4th fleet, stationed on the other side of my empire as that side was completely undefended. Now I was in trouble, metal had become scarce for me, It was a good thing that I didn't lose any capital ships in the invasion.

From Deinaka, I sent my 1st, 2nd and 3rd fleets to the asteroid belt. There was a massive engagement for about 10 minutes, early on the Advent retreated leaving just me and the TEC to battle it out. Eventually he retreated but not without losing a capital ship.

With the asteroid belt secured, I set my sights on one of his volcanic planets connected to the asteroid belt. It was only 2 jumps away from his homeworld, this traitor was going to pay dearly for backstabbing me. I stationed the 3rd fleet at the asteroid belt to prevent anyone from launching an attack against Deikana and sent the 1st and 2nd fleets to attack Firneis. His entire fleet had retreated there and yet again, he retreated. I had him on the run and was not about to stop.

After wiping the planet clean, I built my own colony, defenses and factories. This would be my foothold and staging point for the invasion. My next target was Cesaro, an asteroid that was one jump away from his homeworld and where he retreated to. I began replacing my losses with my newly acquired colony and readied the fleets.

Much like the other times, we engaged in a solid 10 minutes of combat around Cesaro then he retreated to his homeworld. I lost a lot of robotics cruisers in the engagement so I began building some more from Firneis. This was it, the show down. No one stabs me in the back. I prepared the fleets again and launched the invasion on his homeworld.

This engagement was even longer than our previous fights. It had to be, this was his homeworld and he wasn't going to give it up without a fight. I had 6 capital ships, 2 Kols, 2 Duvon's and 2 Akkans. He also had 6; 3 Kol's, 2 Duvon's and a dreadnaught. This battle had to have lasted for at least 20 minutes. Losses were heavy on both sides and I almost lost a battleship but managed to withdraw it back to Cesaro. I took out 5 of his capital ships before he retreated. His fleet was crippled, one battleship and a few support ship retreated to his cornered planet. It only had one jump lane which meant there wasn't going to be another retreat.

But as all this was going on, the 4th fleet was attacked on the other side of my empire at my planet called Sostero. They were attacked by the Korsul Armada, another Vasari player. 6 capital ships vs. my 2. I tried to put up a fight around the planet but they were just too much, I had to withdraw and lost my first capital ship in the process (

.

And so I was back to square one. An arch-nemesis on the brink of defeat only to be attacked by a new one on the other side of my empire, what a load of crock.

I'm now in the process of rebuilding the 4th fleet to retake Sostero and I'm going to have to re-deploy the 3rd and 2nd fleets to better defend my empire, with the 1st fleet mopping up the rest of the Galan Rim Union. On the brightside, 2 of my capital ships are level 10, 3 are level 9, 2 are level 7 and 2 are level 6. A battleship with 2k shields, 5k health and does 38, 33 and 68 damage is a force to be reckoned with in and of itself.

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for some reason i belive that next time we see capital ship battles in a movie they will seem small

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Blair Fraser

Join Date 10/2006

+292

I love revenge on players who backstab me. Can't wait for the 3rd chapter

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damn and i was thinkin beein always on defensive against those pierats fleets even i bribe them off is getting me hot. I love these active defense/offense strategies u need to get moving so u can stay alive and actually win

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Awsome read , could do with some videos to go with it

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AWSOME go get em
really entertainig read remindes me of a book i once read
shiva option by setve whight and david webber (i think those were the authers)

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Awsome read , could do with some videos to go with it

or at least some battle screenshots. as i can't seem to get the videos most post on here to play with windows media player. id love to see some of those videos, most have record on the end of the file name, if anyone knows a compatible viewer

garrett

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.record is the ingame format, obviously you need SoaSE to view them. But then you get a complete replay of the whole game, not just a few select scenes.

I for one would really like having a replay from this sort of game!

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I made a video of the first attack by the Advent on Gaea. It's not the best video but It kind of give you an idea of what the battle felt like. I had to cut out a lot of parts to make the video 10 minutes so I could put it on Youtube. Also I couldn't get fraps to record the sound as well so I slapped on some lame Gladiator music (sorry!

). If anyone knows of a place where I can put a better quality of the video up, that would be great.

Here is the link Battle of Gaea

I'll make a part 2 where the TEC attack Gaea, which is right after and that battle is about twice as big

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The Rim Wars

After having nearly lost Sostero to the Korsul Armada, for some unkown reason, they just packed up and left the planet intact. Took out all of the orbital stations and platforms though. I reluctantly sent fourth fleet back to the planet to secure it, wondering if perhaps it was a trap to lure my fleet back in. After a few minutes of rebuilding, there was no sign of the enemy.

Still, not wanting to be caught off guard again I began re-deploying the fleets. The 1st fleet was going to finish off the Galan Rim Union while the 2nd fleet deployed to Sostero to reinforce the defenses. 3rd fleet was going to hold at the Spahr asteroid belt as that was a key chokepoint and the gate to the central part of my empire.

First things first, I was spread dangerously thing so it was time to use up the rest of my capital ship slots. I commisioned 6 new capital ships. The Imperator, Vengeance, Valiant, Praetor, Excelsior and Vigilant.

I merged the 4th fleet with the 2nd and gave it 3 new capital ships for a total of 8 in the fleet. 2 of the others went to 1st fleet and the 3rd went to 3rd fleet. That's the Rim Wars began.

Here is a picture of what my empire looked like at the start of the Rim Wars

My empire had it's "border" which stretches from the bottom of the picture to the star. To the left and the right were the most strategic choke points on the map, one, the asteroid belt held by my third fleet and the second; the pirate base. Since I had the strongest economy in the game, I turned the pirates into my allies. I would outbid everyone and send them after my enemies. Their base acted as an extra planet and fleet for me, no one tried to take it out and neither did I.

Intelligence had suggested that the Korsul Armada occupied the terran planet to the right of the star. KA is blue though the Vaskorus Arkun, another Vasari, was yellow and really controlled that planet. Boy was intelligence wrong.

I readied the second fleet and moved them into the magnetic nebula between Sostero and Orestes. That's when all hell broke lose, it was a trap. The Korsul Armada and Vaskorua Arkun had joined forces against me and were waiting for me in that nebula. At the time it was just the VA in the nebula and them alone outnumered me 2 to 1. Thinking of my battles at Gaea and Deinaka, I thought that I could handle them but I was wrong again, terribly wrong.

Having never fought anywhere besides planets and asteroid belts, I didn't know what effect the nebula would have on my ships and I didn't find out till it was too late. Two of my level 10 battleships were leading the attack; Agamemnon, my flagship and the Andromeda, her sister ship. There were also 2 Dunov battlecruisers for support; the Defiant and Vigilant, also level 10. about 5 minutes into the battle I begin getting messages that "our capital ship's shields are down!" I thought to myself, no problem, I have support cruisers there. Then I got, "Our captial ship has sustained heavy damage!" So I knew it was time to investigate. The Andromeda had no shields and was under heavy fire but wasn't getting support, not good. Then I clicked on the Vigilant and tried to restore her shields but it said "abilities disabled" WTF!? I thought. Then I noticed the same thing on all of my ships. Putting 2 and 2 together, I realised that the nebula was causing it. Knowing that my fleet was no match for them in that nebula, I sounded the retreat. Again, I was too late.

Reinforcements from the Korsul Armada jumped in and blocked the Andromeda's escape path. The rest of 2nd fleet was able to make it through to phase space but the Andromeda was desperatley trying to fight her way free of the blockade.

She was the last one left, fighting and blasting her way in an effort to make it into phase space. She managed to take a few support ships with her and nearly escaped but in the end, she didn't make it.

And so began the Rim Wars, the longest conflict so far with many, many battles fought. I've gained ground and have taken several planets, including Orestes but it is far from over. I have done battle with about every faction remaining in the game, the wormholes are what they are using to attack me and will be key to victory. I named it the Rim Wars because all of the battles are being fought on the outer rim of my empire, far from the homeworld and core worlds. Here are some more screenshots that tell some of the tales of this conflict;

The most surprising turn of events is that I have a cease fire with the Korsul Armada and we are fighting back the Vaskorus Arkun together. More updates to come as the conflict grows.

I'm also working on the defense of Gaea pt. 2. So I'll post that fairly soon.

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Awesome. Loving it. I think reading that just stopped me doing horrible things in my bosses coffee.

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heh a i thought fleets we made in our last multui game was big...

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keep it up cant wait for next istallment

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Here is the second video Defense of Gaea pt. 2

This battle happens minutes after the other one, with the enemy retreating once my 1st and 2nd fleets jump in and his dreadnaught blows up.

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Wow. That has got to be the most epic I have ever seen concentrated in one place. Good luck on driving the Vaskorus Arkun back into the depths of space. Hopefully the Korsul Armada will prove to be a worthier ally than the Galan Rim Union was.

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game cam has better quality video but you have to be a member to record sound

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I didn't wait to find out this time.'

The end of the Rim Wars and the Novalith Project.

My fleets began moving against the Voice of Senar, the one who helped the Galan Rim Union attack Deineka and Gaea. I left this invasion to the 3rd fleet, not for vengeance, but justice. Their worlds fell quickly, with their main fleet falling back to their homeworld. When I attacked their homeworld, they fell back yet again. Not for long though because as I was taking out their orbital defenses, they returned with reinforcements. They outnumbered my 3rd fleet by a lot but they were no match for the veteran heroes of Gaea. Their last fleet fought to the bitter end in a futile attempt to save their homeworld.

With the Voice of Senar out of the way, the only other remaining empire in my home solar system was the Korsul Armada. Learning from my experiences with the Galan Rim Union, I decided it was time to break my alliance with them. They had 6 planets in the system, my 3rd fleet quickly moved and took the first planet closest to the Voice of Senar's home planet while my 1st and 2nd fleets secured the two wormholes that they were using to access the system. What happened next was a series of skirmishes that would lead up to the most important battle in the Rim Wars.

While the 2nd fleet was securing the wormhole, a Voraskus Arkun fleet that was hiding in a nearby debris field attacked Orestos, forcing 2nd fleet to fall back and defend the planet. While that happened, the entire Korsul Armada came pooring through the wormhole and fortified Giomus, 3rd fleets next target. The Voraskus Arkun retreated back to the wormhole. This was when Operation Purge and the Novalith Project began.

The Novalith Project was a top secret weapons program that was developing a stationary orbital cannon capable of firing interstellar missles. The green light was given to build the first prototype around the homeworld and it's first test shot was fired at the planet of Giomus. Scouts reported it a complete success. Immediately after, the funding was given to begin mass production of these weapons, building one around every core world.

Operation Purge was a multi fleet operation aimed and purging the invaders from my solar system. The 2nd fleet was to attack and secure the Leukothea wormhole, then immediatley after attack the planet Ikeda, held by the Korsul Armada. The 3rd fleet was to launch an all out attack on Giomus.

The operation commenced and the 3rd fleet jumped into Giomus to find that the Korsul had moved the fleet to Ikeda while 2nd fleet was in a battle with the Voraskus Arkun around the wormhole. Then the Korsul jumped back to Giomus, heavily outnumbering the 3rd fleet. There was no falling back though, I hadn't come this close to claiming the system only to be beaten back by an outsider.

Casualties were heavy on both sides and one of my captial ships, a Dunov battlecruiser, the Autumn's Dawn, was destroyed. The Korsul had it worse though 3 of their capital ships were destroyed and they were forced to retreat back to Ikeda.

With both wormholes to the system secured, the Korsul Armada had no where to retreat to so when the 3rd fleet attacked Ikeda, they were utterly destroyed. I then began mopping mopping up the system and taking the rest of their planets while I kept expanding the Novalith Project.

The system of Hadar was finally secured but this presented even more problems. I now had an alliance with the Radaeida Sect, an advent faction but for how long? I also had a cease fire with the Rakorun Survivors, a Vasari faction but they were on the brink of defeat. I don't have the fleet support to launch an interstellar invasion. So the plan is to sit back and let the other factions battle it out while my Novalith cannons take out their worlds.

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Love the story so far but is this it? Just curious about how it all turns out.

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Can you post the replay? That would be awesome.

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