Sins of a Solar Empire ( and a bit of ME3 )

One of the Advent Titans, I like this one:

dammit, now I'm REALLY not going to have any money

pat if you're actually, on, 1v1?

Apparently you can't romance Tali in ME1. THIS IS DISCRIMINATION!

*sigh* why, did someone say potato?

I said tomato. Racist.

are you saying because I'm cuban I like tomatos?


I think you have a lawsuit coming your way



if I ever do this for real, someone, please, shoot me

anyone wanna play a game?


IM SO BORED

I would, but I just nudged my melodramatic brother and he fell to the ground and started bawling. So I'm not sure if the internet's would suddenly go out midgame :/

e: Check hamachi

I would gladly, as always, but I'm at work tonight.

Instead I could recount the tail of your awesome Kol Battleship defending the sun with his endless onslaught of gauss cannon shots.

lol that was gratifying


also I thought you quit?

Not yet, still got a couple more weeks to go.

alright then, feel free to mail your paycheck to me if you don't want it

Who said I didn't want my paycheck?

I think ME2's going to make my laptop blow up when I finish downloading it.

ME1 on max looks better than BF3, so I can only imagine..

Also, did some googling and Williams actually looks hot in ME3. WHY WAS I NOT TOLD THIS? (You know, before I killed her)

Tiel wrote:

I think ME2's going to make my laptop blow up when I finish downloading it.

ME1 on max looks better than BF3, so I can only imagine..

Also, did some googling and Williams actually looks hot in ME3. WHY WAS I NOT TOLD THIS? (You know, before I killed her)

An space battle in orbit around a sun including several hundred ships from four different fleets a some thousand fighters didn't kill your laptop.

Williams doesn't look hot in ME3.

Pat Best wrote:

Williams doesn't look hot in ME3.

If this isn't hot I don't know what is. Well, Tali's hotter. But still.

She looks like plastic surgery central in ME3.

She looks better than she did in ME1 though.

So me and CMA did a 1v1 today. I won but that's not the point of the story.

Small map, 9 planetoids. We each get one desert capital world, one asteroid and one arctic planet. The other three are two magnetic clouds and a pirate base.

I sent my initial Radiance Battleship to the nearest asteroid by itself, while pooling the resources for my second capital ship right away.

By the time my colony ship was about to colonize the asteroid, my second capital ship, a Rapture Battlecruiser, was on its way to join the Battleship and continue on to the ice planet.

Once that was also colonized, I scouted out CMA to see what he was up to. He had gotten his asteroid and was still fighting for his arctic planet, si I figure I'm ahead and can take a moment to research upgrades, build defenses, etc... Not to mention my two capital ships outgun his single Kol and handful of Cobalts on any normal day.

The second pirate raid arrives ( I had sent the first one on him ) and he manages to send it on me. I send both my capital ships to defend my homeworld, in addition to the repair platforms and beam platforms already there and then fight the pirates who arrived moments after my capital ships moved into position.

At this point, it's free XP. They don't have a chance against all of the firepower I've rolled out to welcome them.

Now I had been keeping an eye on the sun, the single point in the system separating me and CMA. He had his Kol and Cobalts sitting at the edge of the sun's gravity well for quite some time now.
I decided to go pay him a visit.

Remember how I said my two capital ships outgunned his fleet any normal day? Well, this was not a normal day.

The first factor I had not considered was a big flaming ball of gasses in perpetual combustion sitting in the middle of the system.
Being around the sun, we get increased antimatter regeneration.
This means I can't count on the Radiance's Detonate Antimatter to burn his antimatter to 0 and neutralize his gauss cannon. Not only that, but he gets his antimatter fast enough that he can even get many shots off between the Ability-disabling factor of Detonate Antimatter.

Now, normally, this isn't a big deal since it also means I can use MY abilities more often and return the favor. But there was another factor that, combined with the previous one, did not amount to any good for me:

Having been pulled right out of an engagements with the pirates and rushed right into a confrontation with CMA, my Radiance's shields were depleted.

Shields being the thing I had pour virtually all of my military budget into, and now going into a fight with no shields and an enemy gauss cannon that won't ever run out of antimatter, it's a bad combination of elements.

The Radiance was forced into retreat quite fast. After that, it was the Rapture alone against a Kol and some Cobalts. The Rapture, while being a battlecruiser, has rather weak firepower in exchange for strong abilities but in this case, the lack of firepower forced it too into retreat before it could take down the Kol.

Before my last ship phase jumps away from the sun, I notice that CMA is constructing a star base next to the phase lane exit to my homeworld.

Both my capital ships severely damaged, CMA fortifying his grip on the system's star.
What happens next?

I used to underestimate CMA like you, but then I took a Kol in the knee.

Tiel wrote:

I used to underestimate CMA like you, but then I took a Kol in the knee.

Unfortunately for CMA, the second my capital ships engaged the Kol battlegroup, I knew it wouldn't turn out too well and queued the upgrades required to build a progenitor, as well as the upgrades for illuminators.

By the time the Radiance returned to the homeworld, I already had illuminators being fielded from my two frigate factories.

Both the Radiance and the Rapture were immediately directed to repair stations upon their return, bringing their hulls back to 100% within moments. I even wished CMA had tried to follow me home to try and crush my cap ships before they got away, so that I could have crushed his instead.

Soon, the progenitor would be ready and the shields would be brought back up to 100% as well.

Then, the discovery of the Star base being built at the sun. I turn my military construction towards Aenima Drone Hosts to bomb the base into oblivion.

Not even 5 minutes have passed since my ships retreated from the sun, and they're back, full hull and shields and ten times the firepower.

Once again, CMA's Kol begins to fire the gauss cannon repeatedly, except this time, not only is he outgunned, but the Rapture put a 130% damage retaliation on the target of the gauss cannon, so it would strike the Kol harder than the target itself.

The Kol goes down in a dozen seconds, then the starbase falls to the onslaught of my bombers minutes later. While it was being attacked, CMA poured many resources into upgrades for it to try to save it, namely fighter upgrades, hull upgrades and weapons upgrades, but in the end it died and all the money spent was for naught.

From there, it was all one push through his planets all the way to his homeworld, nothing standing in my way, until I reached his last defense, comprised of a minefield with hangars and gauss cannons.

We had fun with the minefield.

I was wondering why the shields went down so fast...

And here I am getting my arse kicked by CMA in 1v1s. Can't seem to find a balance between aggressive colonization and consolidating to build up defenses >_>

CMA, I think Advent bombers have a bonus against shields or something. I think they're the most effective strikecraft in the game xP

TEC bombers are slow and hard to hit, and Vasari carriers need a significant amount of resources per bomber.

Tiel wrote:

And here I am getting my arse kicked by CMA in 1v1s. Can't seem to find a balance between aggressive colonization and consolidating to build up defenses >_>

CMA, I think Advent bombers have a bonus against shields or something. I think they're the most effective strikecraft in the game xP

TEC bombers are slow and hard to hit, and Vasari carriers need a significant amount of resources per bomber.

How exactly ARE you losing to CMA? Is this that same game I spectated in? You had total map control, and superior income last I saw?

Only thing wrong is that you let your cap ship get destroyed early.

Send me the replay.

Also, Advent bombers themselves don't have anything special. It might actually be because Aenima Drone Hosts can carry 3 squadrons whereas the other carriers can only hold 2, so you are outnumbered by Advent strike craft more easily.
Hangar Defense squadrons also hold two more strike craft per squadron than all other strike craft launch platforms, in addition to holding 3 squadrons.
And then there's the Rapture which can give a 10-20-30% damage bonus to all strike craft near it.


And yeah CMA, the Radiance had no shields when it attacked you the first time. I was hoping the hull would hold long enough but eh, seems without any upgrades to it of any kind, it just won't do the job.

I suspect it would have gone in a much different direction had the Radiance been at full shield strength, since I did bring your Kol's shields down and begin digging at the hull before I had to fall back.