Game 4:
A new Hope
We played a 2v2 game with both expansions, but without a Replicator player, and our usual house rules. It was the 4th game of our coronavirus Vassal games, and it involved titans vs fighters, hence the name of the thread.
Empireadvantages point bonus variantl: all alien empire advantages start with a bonus CP cost depending on the card, fixed by the average of our given scores,
DD cost 8, BC cost 14,
advanced construction researched in any order. Flagships cannot enter opponent home system
We also used our
empire advantage tweaks.
Setup was also
Alternate-2v2-map-setups with 3 ranks of deep space between allies.
Our last houserules was that titans cost 36 and require:
Tractor Beams and Projector shield to be built.
I was Blue with Warrior race (modded as: +1 ATT when attacking, -2 Tactics when defending), my ally was Red with Hivemind.
I didn't really know which tech path I would choose, I wanted to go with Raider if possible (to leverage the ATT bonus, as I could pick my fights) so I started with DEF, Exploration and Military Academy (my budget was 53 (max leftover you are allowed before the game is 10).
I got the most compact core I have ever seen in a SE4X game: No planet on the
last row, at all.
We quickly explored the deepspace in front of our home systems. We found both the
WP1 and WP2 on this line.
My ally and I both started with a lot of MSP.
I invested in movement tech, and built 6 Scouts with M4 after I was done
with pipelines, and I parked them on the revealed WP1 while my flagship had
joined with my ally.
Our opponents explored the deepspace on the border of their homesystem,
without seeming to find a way through.
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Then on turn 5, Yellow revealed a third WP1 with his flagship and jumped on my
newly built scouts, detroying them all with his flagship, 2 BC, 2 CA, and his starting
scouts.
As we we put 2 WP1 and 2 WP2 on the board every time, I didn't think it was
possible. We had forgotten there were 3 of each WP counters (we play with 2 on the tabletop version).
This left us in a very bad position:
I had no fleet left to defend the road to my homeworld, and my flagship and 2
remaining scouts were out of position to do anything.
Turn 6:
The reasonable options to deal with this fleet were to build Boarding ships,
Fighters, or mines, but I would not have enough time to build a critical mass
of BD or F to defend my planets this turn, so we opted for mines, while my
ally would catch up with ship size and build a few CA.
I also build a base on Eden.
But then, at the second move of the next turn, Green revealed he was House of
speed, and instead of going for my core, they both sent their fleet on our
exploration fleet (2 flagships, 1 pirate and 5 scouts).
They focus fire on the Red Flagship which is destroyed early in the battle. My
flagship manages to retreat with a pirate.
This was the next of a series of devastating crushing blows...
Here is situation at the end of turn 6, and my eco.
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I decided to research tactics so that my destroyers would fire first against
House of Speed, and I purchase 6 DD, and a base to protect Rigel(Right of the
black hole) and close my
left flank.
Turn 7:
Now that their fleets are focused on my ally, delivering mines is a bit
tricky, as my fleets have move 4, having a token move at move 1 would give it
away.
So I use my mines to alternate between blocking C5/C6, before parking them in
the Asteroids field left of the red planets.
My ally extends his network of MSP here, and I ship a stack of mines(2) to Athos.
A small probing raid is launched against Cerberus, their fleet cannot take out
the base, but one screened house of speed dropship drops 3 heavy infantries
and 3 infantries on the ground.
Luckily, the Hivemind militia supported by a single infantry regiment manages to repel
them (we all were unaware that hivemind bonus worked on ground too, which
eventually made them 6-1, against the heavy infantries 4-2).
Some House of Speed ships go on the left side. I send a small detachment here
to intercept them (in case they decide to go through the Asteroids or the
black hole).
But the combined yellow and green fleets move to D9, threatening both Cerberus
and Athos.
We launch an attack with 6 CA and my flagship against their forces in D9.
The yellow flagship had been converted to an advanced flagship, equiped with
second salvoes.
The green CA crews are not up to the task, and we have to retreat to Athos,
taking heavy losses.
Fortunately, they follow to Athos, and one BC and the advanced flagship blow
up on mines, giving our forces, supported by a base, a decisive edge, and their combined fleet is
forced to retreat.
I decide to resume researching move techs to raid their planets, and get move level 5.
Turn 8:
Our initial pursuits after the battle of Athos goes wrong, but we end up
managing to detroy a few remaining BC and CA.
I regroup my fleets in the Asteroids next to the central Warp Point, and I
extend my network of MSP here.
For the eco, I purchase move tech 6
Turn 9:
My fleet leaves the Asteroids for H6,
while I leave one blocker in G5 and G6 to slow down pursuers.
My reinforcements go to E4 and F5 (in the asteroids).
One of my delaying DD gets destroyed in G6, but the other ones manages to fend
off its attackers who are surprisingly very few (it appears most of the ships
on the warp point were sweepers.
My 2 DD reinforcing from Eden join the attack against Pleiades(I5), and my 4 DD from the
HW jump through the black hole (without slingshot). 3 of them explode.
A single scout is left in H6 to delay the opposing fleet.
The shipyards on Pleiades are destroyed, along with the Point Defense Scouts sent from the
green homeworld and the colony is razed. I leave a
scout in H6 to delay their fleet again. The Green fleet, supported by a yellow
dreadnought is on my tail, and kills my blocked in H6.
For the last move of the turn, I send all of my fleet to Pollux, and a single
DD to Sirius to blockade the planet and prevent the construction of a base
here. The green fleet can catch me on Pollux, but without the supporting
yellow DN, I would make short work of it.
The yellow fleet moves back to the Warp point, to regroup with reinforcements.
(that includes a bunch of green sweepers, and what we expect to be a Titan).
A lone house of speed DD successfully bombs Fionn (NE corner of the map)
twice.
We managed to inflict moderate economic damage against green, and I have 11 DD
in range of his homeworld.
We expect him to have 4 SY only, and an infantry.
However, if their fleet Beeline for my homeworld, I won't be able to stop a
titan...
I build fighters to stand a chance against his probable titan, while my ally
spends everything in turn order bid.
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Turn 10: All in
We don't think we can stop a direct assault on my homeworld, even though I can
buy a turn of respite by holding Eden against Green alone (yellow only has
movement 2 at this stage, so their only chance to strike at my HW early would
be to take Eden on move 2, which is highly unlikely).
If their pursuing fleet engage mine early on, my fleet will be too battered to
assault the green homeworld.
So we spend all the Red CP on Initiative.
But they spend 2. So we overspent them by 57 CP...
I launch the offensive on the green homeworld. Unfortunately, there were more
shipyards than expected (7), supported by a base and 3 Destroyers. I manage to destroy all
shipyards and destroyers, but the base prevails in the end and destroys the
last DD after the last shipyard is detroyed.
Green and Yellow redirect their center combined fleet against my red ally once
again.
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We manage to slow them down and avoid losing any planet by sacrificing a few ships to
block the way, including my elite Flagship, sadly.
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However, Cerberus falls on the beginning of the next turn.
The combined enemy fleet doesn't push towards the red homeworld bot goes to
the right to attack the planets on the right. Several Red cruisers are
sacrificed to slow down the reinforcing titans, and I manage to isolate and
destroy one with my fighters, while the supporting green Point defense
supports are cut off (they were sent raiding the red planet of Sheldon in the corner).
My surviving 4 fighters are jumped on by 2 titans and the green
flagship.
I manage to destroy the flagship before retreating with a single fighter (now
elite), and 2 CV, but we lose initiative, and my surviving fighter is
destroyed by the opposing titan.
My reinforcements (6 brand new fighter squadrons and 2 CV) are dispatched to
support Red. I research move tech 7 so that they can get there on move 2.
Athos, close to the red HW falls and is bombarded into oblivion (it has not
been turned into an asteroid field to make the path to the red homeworld
shorter), and the
combined green and yellow fleet launches an attack on the red homeworld. Our
12 fighters supported by base manage to destroy the 2 titans and their point
defense escort.
There is only one fighter squadron left, led by a promising pilot named
Skywalker.
I split my new units between destroyers, to raid the Green worlds, and Fighters
to help Red defend.
A new wave of 2 titans is repelled by our valiant fighter squadrons, but not
before they destroy 2 more red colonies, and the skywalker squadron.
While Red focuses on improving his fighters, I gather the largest invasion
army ever since in this galactic war, and take off with 6 Transports, 2 Grav
armored corps, 6 infantry corps, and 6 marine corps.
My reasoning is that my Transports 2 on attack would be strong enough to destroy
Green Scouts and destroyers, so I don't need any other support ship:
Against DD, I would attack at 1+1 for Warrior race, + 1 Attack Tech vs 1 Def
Tech - 2 House of speed malus, so I would hit on 4-, while the house of speed
DD would hit me on 2-
That is a huge advantage for utility ships.
I manage to destroy 4 House of speed destroyers this way, but my invasion
fleet is sent without proper scouting and is destroyed after entering a
minefield on H9, between the supernova and the blackhole, as the house of Speed Scouts destroy the surviving 2 transports.
So much for the invasion fleet...
Meanwhile, the Red CV fleet supported by a lone fighter squadron of mine
(my carrier fleets end a lot of battles with 1 remaining fighter) plays cat
and mouse with the yellow titans.
I launch a new wave against Green, this time sending :
2 CVs, 4 fighters
6 DD
All manage to get through the blackhole unharmed
A single yellow titan is sent back to guard Pleiades while the green forces
regroup with the titans in the nebula.
The titan is dealt with by the CV group and its destroyers (the
opponents didn't know that there was a reinforced CV group).
Once again, I end the battle with a single surviving fighter squadron.
Note that the yellow and green units have been revealed in the screenshot to
make it easier to understand for the viewer.
Meanwhile, we decide to pull our Cv group away from the green+yemmpw fmeet,
because we assume they have sufficient point defense to destroy our 7 fighter
squadrons, I re establish the
MSP highway to the Green homeworld so that we can have the option to strike
this turn with my fresh reinforcements.
On turn 16, we know that Green has 4 SY split between Dakara, Castor and Bajor
(from what we saw earlier as reinforcements).
We suspect that Bajor has 2, and the other have 1.
He can either build mines or a fleet. Mines would make it difficult to protect
all 3 planets at once as I don't have any high value target left (and he
cannot easily shuffle them around).
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Green seizes initiative, and launches a depserate counter attack on Pleiades.
He manages to finish my fighters, and kill a few DD, but his fleet is
obliterated.
The combined green/yellow fleet re-enters Warp Point 2.
There is not much on the way between my fleet and the green, or yellow
homeworld, but yellow could easily slow us down if he has a few combat capable
units to use as speed bumps.
Our CV fleet hides in the asteroids to prevent them from hitting us, while having options
to raid the planet of Valhalla, or pull back towards our own systems while my
attack fleet destroy the shipyard over caster and bombard the planet (down to
1).
My 5 reinforcing DD rush towards the asteroid field near warp point 2.
The comined yellow green fleet reunits with the newly built titan on warp
point 1 and doesn't try to protect Valhalla.
Red sends a Scout in E10 to slow them down.
Our carrier fleet moves to Valhalla and destroys the colony there.
I send a DD to G10 through the Warp point 2 to prevent them from catching our CV fleet over Valhalla.
My raiding fleet leaves Green space and bombards Benden into oblivion, while
my frehs reinforcements detroy the shipyards over Bajor (losing 3 DD in the
provess).
The bombardment of Bajor is a complete failure
They advance their combined fleet to E10 where the single red Scout engage in a
hopeless delaying action.
The DD in G10 is moved in front of them in D10 to slow them down so that my reinforcements can reach the red homeworld in time on the next turn.
We then move the Raiding fleet and my surviving CV and fighter from the CV
fleet to the yellow homeworld. we suspect we will be
repelled by a base or a titan, but destroying the shipyards there would allow
red to finish the job at the beginning of the next turn, without letting
Yellow rebuild.
the Red CV are too slow to reach it, and bombard the colony on Xi.
The colony is completely destroyed.
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To our surprise, there is neither a base nor a titan on the Yellow homeworld.
The shipyard is destroyed with minimal losses on our side (the fighter even
survives the battle!), and the homeworld is destroyed in the following
bombardment. Here are the survivors of the last battle (opposing forces were 5 shipyards):
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The good guys prevail after an exhausting 16 turns war, a few billions civilians lost, 6 death stars destroyed, and countless fighters lost.
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