Saving Humanity with AI War

[RooksBailey]

So, I've been seeing all these cool ads for Ender's Game...


(perfect for this game!  :))


...and it made me in the mood for a good sci-fi game.  Normally, I would go right to Sins of a Solar Empire, but for some reason that game is starting to wear thin with me.  So I was poking around my hard drive and discovered a game I had completely forgotten about: AI War!  I really liked this game was I first discovered it - it first appears to be a budget RTS, but it turns out to be a wildly complex and unpredictable sandbox 4X, tower defense, complex RTS hybrid.   I  recall eagerly awaiting the Light of the Spire expansion, and while I did buy it, I also immediately stopped playing it for reasons I don't recall.    :D  But now I am back at it again.

I am having an interesting game so far.  I am going easy with this campaign - only level 2/3 AIs, and a 60 planet system - so I can get reacquainted with everything Arcen has added to the game over the years (and there are another two expansions yet!). 

The game got interesting for me when I discovered an AI Data Center at the planet of Yaqkinsic.  If I could destroy it, it would reduce the AI's aggression down to 20 from 40.  So I dispatched a fleet and we did a deep strike far behind enemy lines:



The big boxy thing to the right was the Data Center.  Half my fleet went for that, while the other half dealt with the enemy presence in the system. 

This "deep strike" angered the AI (btw: that was its term for my raid), and it promptly launched a raid at one of my forward planets, Naisama.  A normal raid we could handle, but the AI sent a very annoying fleet of Neinzul Viral Swarmers.:



I don't think I ever encountered these before...and I hope I don't have to, again!  It is like a swarm of angry bees!  They quickly multiplied to close to 400 ships!  Fortunately, they didn't seem interested in attacking my command station, but instead they just buzzed around destroying all my ships, engineer drones, and selected turrets.  Here they are in action:



Interestingly, it was at this moment that a band of friendly "resistance fighters" revealed themselves by coming to my aid.  Here are their fighters going into the attack against the swarmers:



A roving band of friendly Neinzul also showed up and helped me fight them off.   Their ship entering my system:



All in all, it took about 20 or so minutes to whittle these pests down.  When it was over, I had built turrets, minefields, and other defenses all over Naisama  :D:



I found it interesting how the resistance stuck around; they now have a regular convoy of traffic moving through Naisama (the grey ships moving from wormhole to wormhole on the right of the above picture). 

That situation taken care of,  I planned my next strike:  to hack an AI Advanced Research Facility at Murdkil.  So I built two (just in case) cloaked Ship Design Hackers:



I pack them, along with a task force made up of a flag ship and assorted warships, into a transport and send it into Murdkil:



That is a shot of my flag ship, and the two SDHs off to the right.  The transport can be seen up top.

When the AI detected the SDH attempting to hack into their facility, it emitted a system-wide tachyon pulse to detect the hackers.  It did locate the two SDHs and sent in some reserves to take care of them.  So I had to send in a second task force to defend them as my first had gotten whittled down:



BTW: you can see a bunch of my Teleporting Space Stations in that second fleet (the upside down 'T' icons); these were my random pick for this campaign.  I really like them.  They are moderately powerful and can instantly appear anywhere in a planetary system to attack a foe.

After a moderate fight we took control of the planet, and hacked and captured the ARF.  The recovered data revealed the plans for three advanced AI designs.  I went with the Laser Gatling Mark I:



I quickly made a batch  :):


Unfortunately, now the AI Aggression is up to 51.  So I think I will need to knock off another AI Data Center.  Here's the plan:



First, we will hit Pexlark, probably from Naisama using a transport, and take out that DC so as to lower the AI's aggression.  Then I will hit Etxu where the Zenith have informed me an important power core is located and needs to be retrieved.  I don't intend to capture either system, but just do a smash and grab if possible.  After that, I am back to trying to locate the two AI command planets and wipe them out.

Down with the machines!

[Martok]

Very cool, RooksBailey!  This looks like a lot fun.  :) 

[RooksBailey]

Very cool, RooksBailey!  This looks like a lot fun.  :)

Thanks!  I am patiently waiting for the AI to curb stomp me like it always does.  :D 

[RooksBailey]

Waiting over.  It curb stomped me last night.   :)

Don't have any pictures because I deleted them all in an act of fury.   :D

What happened is I finally made it to that shard.  Everything was going great, so I grabbed it.  I promptly get informed that we need to get the shard home fast because the AI is going crazy in response.  Well, the last time I grabbed a shard it sent those 300-400 Neinzul raiders, so I figured this would be no big deal either.  Nope.  It amassed 1200(!) frontline ships, along with a slew of capitals, and hit me hard.  700-800 went right after the shard, with the rest assaulting all my other planets. 

It was a no win situation in the end.  If I built every ship I could, I only would have been able to muster 500 ships.   My tech wasn't properly invested to match such an invasion, either.  I really needed some battle stations and improved military HQs instead of the tech 2 turrets I invested in. 

It was a slaughter no matter how many times I restored the game.   >:(  At best, I could sacrifice the shard and keep my planets, but that ends the Spire plot.  If I tried to keep the shard, I lose all my planets and the game. 

Game over.   >:(

See, this is why I usually stop playing AI War.   :D  All that effort and *BAM* the AI stops toying with you and just crushes you like a bug, ruining hours of work.  Eh, I guess that is the nature of the game.  I guess we need to approach AI War more like Dark Souls "Prepare to Die" edition than like Sins of a Solar Empire.

[Martok]

Heh.  Sounds like the game's biggest challenge is figuring out how to not piss off the AI until it's too late/unable to stop you.  ;D 

Still, it was a fun read, even if it was also tragically short.  ;)  Good show! 

[JasonPratt]

Certainly reminds me I want to play this game (I own it and all expansions so far, I think)...

[RooksBailey]

Heh.  Sounds like the game's biggest challenge is figuring out how to not piss off the AI until it's too late/unable to stop you.  ;D 

Still, it was a fun read, even if it was also tragically short.  ;)  Good show!

Thanks!

Update:  I did some research and discovered that I missed a key strategy:  when I saved a Spire refugee community (not shown in the AAR) they gave me the plans for an advanced ship, with the ability to make four copies of it.  I think those ships could have helped turn the battle.  Doh!

Oh well.  I'm gonna start another campaign and try again.

Certainly reminds me I want to play this game (I own it and all expansions so far, I think)...

I need to buy the last two expansions.  I think I will do that today before I start another campaign. 

BTW: just read that the sixth expansion is due out in October.