AAR 6 - Final Doom

[Green1]

Kyrub, scients, Gog release or lower.

[ete]

Okay.

WE are an accident. WE were tortured in the laboratories, and we brought vengeance on our creators. Now WE shall burn and consume all, we shall spread like a plague across this galaxy, before turning in and annihilating even ourselves.

WE are awake. And WE find...


War against every other faction. Bases paying 18 minerals in support costs. Poor teraforming. Absolutely stupid numbers of defensive units. A poor Secret Project.


And at the same time.. Large energy reserves. Bases full of facilities..

There is potential here. We must resculpt OUR forces, and take this conflict to the Enemies.

First, WE will disband most defensive units, reducing the minerals needed to support and allowing US to rush build several things of importance.


Next WE will burn these foolish Recreation Commons. The slaves will work under threat of the Punishment Spheres, not for "recreation" or "happiness".

Lastly, let US negotiate. WE will try and trick others into trading vital Technologies to US. First, the University, who remind us a little too much of our birth in a Usurper laboratory. We are willing to pretend friendship, for now.











The Academician seems... very secretive about his research. Perhaps in a few turns he will be more open. It's a shame, he has level five weapons, and I have level one..

WE toy with the idea of getting him to fight the Red Unit, but 600 credits is expensive. Perhaps a little later, when I know how many credits I'll want for other uses.

The Red Unit is.. uncooperative.




At the end of the first Awakening year, WE have made some progress, but there is still much to do..

[Yitzi]

(You misspelled "forfeit" in the base name, by the way.  Also, what is the backstory of each of the factions?)

[ete]

Thanks, fixed.

And the Annihilators were a project by the Usurpers. They were initially planned to be a subservient hivemind, more organized, aware, and aggressive than the Planetmind, which would allow the Usurpers to finally crush all opposition and ascend, but the newly formed hivemind broke out of their control and destroyed much of the Usurper empire. It captured a significant portion of the native life (particularly Locusts which it could call from further away), and took many humans and progenitors as slaves to work in it's factories, consuming all those who resisted.

There are rumors that several humans factions had a hand in making the Annihilators such a threat to the Usurpers, with the Technocrats implicated in altering the research projects, and the Data Angels in the covert mission which finally freed the hivemind. You can read more here http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=4179.msg29246#msg29246

[ete]

This Cult will worship US not the Planetmind, or WE will ignore their armies and devour their homes with Locusts.

The Pholous Mutigen is complete, increasing the power of our Locusts as they are produced.




Another Cultish base falls before US.



Production overview.





Ah, the Planetary Transit System.. This shall greatly advance the swarm, with a headquaters in every base and starting size 3 we shall spread like a cancer...




This Prophet is surprisingly stubborn. Perhaps he understands out true motivations.


Destroying this defensive technology.


Locusts, while extremely effective and highly mobile, are very, very expensive. Even two turns from completion it would cost 400 credits to rush. We need some cheaper disposable troops if we are to battle the others.



Finally, the slave researchers have come up with something of use. Next they shall work on Centauri Empathy, so we may increase our bond with planet and borrow more of it's power.


These bases are falling like flies. And to flies. So far, not one Locust has fallen, though with their cost this is fortunate.


The next base is.. much better defended. WE will wait and heal before attacking.


It's time to start pressing the University for their research.





WE shall see how he feels when there are Locusts crawling through his every base...



The Cult foolishly abandoned their base, now it is no more. Their units will die for lack of support when they have no bases.

[ete]

Excellent, another ally. Though I'm not quite sure what you're thinking when you say your plans work nicely with Ours.







Finally, someone who'll sell US tech. The techsteal ability seems to be failing so far, which is very unfortunate.





Exploring. The Cult must have another base somewhere.


There it is.

Almost halfway through my 20 turns. Should be able to do some good expansion before I run out of time, but the Stranded are kind of scary. They have a LOT of units, and they are very very resistant to Psi apparently.

[ete]

I'd have like them as a vassal. Oh well, it is fitting that they were Annihilated. At least I got their tech. Two basically useless techs, one handy one, and one absolute gem.

Now WE have to decide who I want to attack.. Red Unit and University are top of the list, Uni for the tech they'd give when they surrender, and Red Unit since they're at war with me and are a much bigger threat.

It looks like Red Unit will be under some early pressure.

And now I'm free to recolonize the Cult's former home, though I don't have many turns left to act..

It's very odd being on Hybrid Forest tech with only lasers as weapons. Handy that locusts work so well, though they do cost so much...

[Yitzi]

(By the way, what's the backstory of the Exterminatus?  Are they an offshoot of one of the two main groups, or are they a different group of Progenitors?  Also, are we agreed that the Exterminatus will play before the Stranded?)

[ete]

I'll let Green1 field the Exterminatus backstory. And Stranded are listed before Exterminatus in the OP.

[Yitzi]

And Stranded are listed before Exterminatus in the OP.

Yeah, but I would prefer to change that order.

[ete]

Sorry, BlueFlux, but I'll be taking your bases.









Most bases need little/no garrison, and it saves on support. Colony Pods are the best investment thanks to free HQ and Planetary Transit System.


Oh, wow, a very long distance invasion.



Picking off a few unattended Colony Pods to stunt the growth of the stranded is all WE can do right now thanks to their huge numbers of defenders.



The same cannot be said for the Red Unit. They will be crushed.



Even the Exterminatus will feel the sting of Locusts.


Damn, so close. That's the first locust down, and it happened at a vital moment.. Now those units will be able to land... My reinforcements should arrive soon, but still.




Storming through, not worrying about defending bases. No time, turns are short and my units are expensive. Take the bases and the units will fall to lack of support.


Supply Crawlers! Wow, Green1 is in for a treat.

[ete]

This is going nicely. Amazing what you can do in ten turns if you put your mind to it.


The war against Red Unit is going fairly well.


aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

crap.

Okay.

Let's try and get that back.


One down, one more defender to kill.





This is a fast back and forth war, thanks to those Locusts being offense only.


It is time for the Annihilators to.. expand.



Trimming back the Stranded.

[JarlWolf]

Gah the first faction the fascists meet and he makes a pact with them...  AND GIVES THEM TECH FOR CREDITS!?

Warricks AI is just... *shakes head*

Credits is NOT a problem. Mindworms are everywhere down there... planet husk credits constantly...

[ete]

Taking another Red Unit base.


Harassing the Stranded. They're most likely to cause US harm, but WE are not in a position to do real damage soon. Slowing them down is okay though.


WE rebuild on the land the base the Exterminatus took once stood.


Bah, another Locust down, and I didn't take the base!




Finally take the Red Unit HQ. It's got two nice SPs, but is probably too hard to defend.



Yay! My second ever research breakthrough. I won't be able to use it, but I can at least direct the AI towards Cent Med which will give +1 energy per square.


The Red Unit are ignoring me. To be a little kind to BlueFlux, I'll leave them.

[ete]

To wrap up. The Annihilators are now in full blown insane ICS mode, enabled by their fungmin bonus and free HQs everywhere (and massively boosted by the PTS). Hopefully this will give the AI enough of a leg up to at least hold it's own against Yitzi's Stranded, which has a _huge_ tech lead (luckily psi is unaffected by their starting Singularity Reactors).

I managed to time all the base creations almost perfectly, just in time to hand over to AI would would've tried to talk them halfway across the map. And there are.. quite a few bases:










Mostly small bases, but they'll grow.


A decent collection of SPs.


Not a huge number of units, but 20 formers and 10 Locusts is nice, and I'm certain the AI will flood with units while I'm away. Though I did obsolete every standard combat unit to try and force them into native+facilities... I wonder how well that'll work.

And finally, the powergraph:



Despite techsteal not working the Annihilators are.. pleased. Prepare yourselves, human and alien alike, Annihilation is coming for you.

On to the next player, whether that's Yitzi or Green1.

Both of them are very scary already.