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AI War Tips
Top 10 Starter tips for AI War and The Zenith Remnant!
I'm really not claiming to be an expert at this, but after about 20 hours under my belt I felt the need to impart some of the "wisdom" I'd gleamed from prolonged play. I'm not strategist so these tips are generally opperational and would benefit beginners rather than anyone who has had as much time with the game as myself.
Saying that, there may be something other players may not know, so here goes:
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1 - Upgrade Fighters and Bombers First
The biggest mistake I made in my first two games of AI War was not to upgrade these ship classes first. Fighters and bombers make up the bulk of your fleet so you want to have the best possible. Bombers, for instance, are the single best thing for wearing down shields and Mk3/Mk4 are lightning quick about it!
Also, if you actually want Mk4 of anything you'll need to first research the Mk3 version of that ship type and then capture an AI factory. This is probably the most important ship to capture in the game because of this.
After Bombers and Fighters I find the next best thing to research is Gattling Lasers if you have them, otherwise getting the Spire Star ship as soon as possible is a good idea.
2 - Search and Destroy
If you've got a choice of systems to attack next don't just attack them at random. The one with the best capturable ships is normally the best to go for, after that keep an eye out for resources.
These choices however are overruled by any system where the AI has a shield in place. These can be really tough to wear down, especially if the AI has lightning shuttles (agh!) In these cases it's best to hit these as early as possible before the AI progresses too much and has hundreds of ships defending it instead of a few.
Make good use of your scouts, always send them in first (save before hand in case they get obliterated!)
3 - Before you repair that Golem...
There are a few things to think about, even before you start directing engineer drones towards that monolithic star ship. Firstly think about the resources it's going to drain, in terms of both metal and crystal but more importantly, power. Each Golem consumes a whopping 400,000 units of energy just to stay operational. This can be counter balanced by capturing AI power plants which produce far more power than your own.
However the big issue with even repairing a Golem is the AI progress it causes, which is 1 unit per 375,000 units repaired. This might not sound much but when Golems have a health value of 50 million plus the AI progress can jump tremendously. They also damage themselves when they fire, which means more repairing is required after a battle resulting in further repairs and AI progress.
Only use them for larger battles that you can't handle with just your normal fleet, they attract most of the attention during a battle so they're very useful against thousands rather than hundreds of AI ships.
4 - Don't wait around!
Did you know there's a fast forward button? Just press the Numpad + key several times to speed the game up to 10x of normal. Use the - key to slow it back down. This is extremely useful when waiting around to build star ships and big fleets.
5 - Don't forget the star ships
Many of the star ships available will boost the effectiveness of the surrounding ships. It's something you don't see the AI do as much and it's to your advantage!
Flagships and Spire star ships are the best to go for. Dreadnaughts are okay at long range but I don't feel they give you value for resources as much. I'm far more of a get-in-there type of strategist, which leads me to my next tip:
6 - Bigger fleets are more awesom-er
That in itself is probably obvious, but lets talk about the mix a little. You don't want to just have fighters because missile frigates will eat them for breakfast. And you don't want bombers because they're scared of fighters. My all time favourite mix is Fighters, Bombers and Laser Gattling ships (if you have them) with as many star ships as I can build in time.
Tanks are also good if you've got them and so are electric shuttles in big numbers. Ideally pick a type to support fighters and bombers and concentrate on researching the best version of those for your fleets.
7 - Are we feeling better?
At some point it might be worth researching Engineer Drone Mk2's because it firstly raises the cap on how many engineer drones you can have in total and secondly you'll need all the help you can get to repair your fleet. Something I completely failed to do in my earlier games.
Simply build some engineers at the same planet as your fleet (or, of course fly your fleet to a planet with engineers) and providing there's nothing else for the engineers to do (eg, help with building) they'll automatically start zipping through your fleet, repairing everything. This is one of those moments where the fast forward button helps!
If you want to see an overview of how healthy your fleet is at a glance, once selected there is a button at the bottom centre of the screen containing the number of ships you have selected (it should be next to a button marked "Give".) If you hover over this button with the mouse you'll get a read out of the ships selected and how healthy that class is as a whole.
8 - Size matters, check their fleets!
Enemy fleet sizes and upgrades are something that should be examined before sending in your main fleet. Your scouting ship will help you see what is awaiting you on the other side of the portal.
To see the size of a particular group of ships, drag a box around it and a small note will appear in the bottom right of the box indicating how many enemy ships are within it. This also works for your own ships.
Also it's good to get an approximate idea of how much more advanced their fleets may be. If you have slightly more ships but they have mostly Mk4's and you only have Mk2's it's a good idea to bolster your forces. Don't forget that AI planets often receive re-enforcements just when you don't want them too.
9 - Move as One
When moving ships as a group, most of the time it's far better to move all at the same speed. Because fighters are so much faster than most ships they have a nasty habit of running off and getting into trouble before your bombers and star ships have caught up.
In the bottom left of the screen is a small button with either the word "Lone" or "Group" written on it. Click to toggle which of these it says. When it says "Lone" ships will travel at their maximum speed and fighters will probably reach their target first. While it says "Group" your fleet will travel at the same speed (the speed of the slowest ship in the selection) and will be stronger as a result.
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Thanks for visiting! Please Let me know if you spot any errors (eep!) please let me know! |
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