The very early game is very surprising for how exciting the warfare can be. Despite being absolute corvette spam, it's pretty intense knowing your opponent is on the exact same level as you, can build ships exactly as fast as you, has access to almost as many resources as you, and is as prepared to sacrifice their entire fleet as you are. You'd think massive fleets would make warfare more entertaining but the limited nature of early-game warfare makes it a lot more intense
I'm curious if anybody has any good stories of warfare in the early game. I had a particularly interesting one that i'll put in a spoiler because it was a long war.
I'm curious if anybody has any good stories of warfare in the early game. I had a particularly interesting one that i'll put in a spoiler because it was a long war.
In my most recent pacifist campaign, I declared war on a neighboring aggressor (the irony is not lost here) with the intention of liberating two of their planets and cutting them off from vital resources. I had a mod which gave me a more clear idea of a nation's fleet strength and the opponent was sitting at 2000 while I had 2500. I started the war and immediately realized a problem: The AI isn't as dumb as it looks, and it won't launch its fleet from a spaceport unless it's got a viable target. Spaceports are actually rather formidable this early on, and defense platforms are... kinda useful? If we want to put it that way?
I moved to attack their fleet and warped into an FTL magnet fighting a defense platform, a spaceport, and the enemy fleet. As it turned out, they'd researched cruisers already and I was still on destroyers (curse the game's progression in that aspect). Combined, all three forces outmatched me. However, I'd studied their fleet beforehand and found their equipment was suited for damaging armor, so i decked myself out in shields. Long and short of it is their fleet was sent crashing to earth, although the spaceport was still standing. My ships were being cut down and I was forced to retreat, the game counting the battle as a loss since they still had the spaceport and defense platform! I was down to around 500 fleet power.
Astonished, I started building my fleet back up for another attack. Meanwhile, my opponent was quick to do the same. What followed was a series of brief skirmishes between myself and my opponent where we tried to cut down each other's fleets over and over. The war was mostly on their front, but the fact that they could rebuild so quickly prevented me from gaining a major advantage.
There were a few factors that I was able to use to my advantage. Our borders were literally grinding against each other, and we'd been aggressively expanding next to one-another to cut the other off from resources and habitable planets. I managed to take out one of their frontier outposts, giving me a small but later very strategic system: It served as the main jump point between the enemy's homeworld and the planets I was trying to liberate. Pretty soon I'd established a defense station there to pull in any ships I could. This prevented their fleet from combining together.
Later the enemy managed to rebuild their navy up to 2k, and I was falling behind in comparison. I was able to see that they were coming after one of my planets, so I quickly moved my fleet over there and waited. Sure enough, they came running and attacked the spaceport, but with the backup of my navy I took them out again. This time I had minimal losses.
With their fleet defeated again, I quickly rushed into their space to attack their spaceports. I hit their homeworld spaceport first and foremost since it was producing cruisers. The remaining spaceports were of little significant in terms of battle, but suffice to say it was over by that point. I moved in and attacked the planet I intended to liberate, although it took three rounds of attack since my armies were fairly weak and they had the "very strong" phenotype. I eventually claimed the planet and moved on to attack the other, but not before noticing they'd build another formidable navy. It was fairly small, around 1.5k and mostly corvettes, but their tenacity was impressive. But I defeated them in a quick battle and when I moved to bombard their second planet, they surrendered.
This war lasted a VERY long time in-game. It must have been at least 5 years, maybe 10. I like to imagine my species held lots of parades and parties celebrating war's end.
I moved to attack their fleet and warped into an FTL magnet fighting a defense platform, a spaceport, and the enemy fleet. As it turned out, they'd researched cruisers already and I was still on destroyers (curse the game's progression in that aspect). Combined, all three forces outmatched me. However, I'd studied their fleet beforehand and found their equipment was suited for damaging armor, so i decked myself out in shields. Long and short of it is their fleet was sent crashing to earth, although the spaceport was still standing. My ships were being cut down and I was forced to retreat, the game counting the battle as a loss since they still had the spaceport and defense platform! I was down to around 500 fleet power.
Astonished, I started building my fleet back up for another attack. Meanwhile, my opponent was quick to do the same. What followed was a series of brief skirmishes between myself and my opponent where we tried to cut down each other's fleets over and over. The war was mostly on their front, but the fact that they could rebuild so quickly prevented me from gaining a major advantage.
There were a few factors that I was able to use to my advantage. Our borders were literally grinding against each other, and we'd been aggressively expanding next to one-another to cut the other off from resources and habitable planets. I managed to take out one of their frontier outposts, giving me a small but later very strategic system: It served as the main jump point between the enemy's homeworld and the planets I was trying to liberate. Pretty soon I'd established a defense station there to pull in any ships I could. This prevented their fleet from combining together.
Later the enemy managed to rebuild their navy up to 2k, and I was falling behind in comparison. I was able to see that they were coming after one of my planets, so I quickly moved my fleet over there and waited. Sure enough, they came running and attacked the spaceport, but with the backup of my navy I took them out again. This time I had minimal losses.
With their fleet defeated again, I quickly rushed into their space to attack their spaceports. I hit their homeworld spaceport first and foremost since it was producing cruisers. The remaining spaceports were of little significant in terms of battle, but suffice to say it was over by that point. I moved in and attacked the planet I intended to liberate, although it took three rounds of attack since my armies were fairly weak and they had the "very strong" phenotype. I eventually claimed the planet and moved on to attack the other, but not before noticing they'd build another formidable navy. It was fairly small, around 1.5k and mostly corvettes, but their tenacity was impressive. But I defeated them in a quick battle and when I moved to bombard their second planet, they surrendered.
This war lasted a VERY long time in-game. It must have been at least 5 years, maybe 10. I like to imagine my species held lots of parades and parties celebrating war's end.
