Terran, 1.08 Balanced Mod Game Test
 

Giving the stock Terran Empire a shot with the new patch and Kwok's Balanced mod...

The strategy I am going with is rapid expansion but with military conditions. First I colonized my home sector, 2 other planets, nothing great.

I found a Huge green world in the adjacent system. However I did not rush to it. My military strategy is that each system will have a Defense Fleet. In addition there will be several roaming fleets which will be used to secure systems and take the fight to the enemy if needed. Before I colonize a new system I will make sure an Attack fleet is there too. I will not move the attack fleet until an appropriate Sector Defense fleet is present. This will be an expensive strategy.

As for research, I am only researching 2 things at a time. I may increase it to 3 as I build more labs.

So far so good, colonizing my 3rd system, no other races found yet. I have 2 Attack fleets made of 3 Level 2 Frigates. I have a defense fleet made up of 3 L2 Frigates in my home system. In the 2nd system I just got the space yards built and am making their fleet.

My resources are starting to get stretched though.

Re: Terran, 1.08 Balanced Mod Game Test
 

Found what I think is a neutral next to me. They have several starbases built already and I believe they have went the fighter route.

Not much more growth as I am barely breaking even on minerals. I recently got the next level for mineral extraction so I have started to update my facilities.

I also designed a missile frigate (Striker), Level 3. It has 2 L2 Capital Ship missiles, L2 armor and L2 Ion Engines. I also upgraded my primary attack ship class, Avenger, with the new tech.

To get some combat in, I upgraded my attack fleet, beta , to 4 Avenger II's and 2 Striker I's. I sent them in against the neutrals and attacked a planet, it had a starbase in orbit and a sat layer. The sat layer ran right away.

The starbase had over 2k of armor, so I was a bit concerned about my ammo supplies. The base also had a missile launcher and several DU's. I came away victorious though without losing a ship. I had 1 striker at 91% damage and an Avenger around 60% damaged.

Support ships are key to an invasion. I will most likely hold the fleet until some supply freighters can join up. I also want to deploy a mobile repair ship, but I don't have the tech.

It looks like their primary planet has 2 starbases, one model I have seen, another I haven't. They use Ice planets, so no invasions I guess, just going to have to pound them from orbit. My unreliable intel says they have ~23 fighters which may cause me to deploy a Point Defense class earlier than I would have liked.

Having fun though http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Terran, 1.08 Balanced Mod Game Test
 

Well, the neutral sent an 11 ship fleet at me and I was forced to retreat back to my system. I did discover their latest ships are using Emissive armor, which could be a problem. Beta fleet is returning back to the space yard for repairs and to pick up a couple supply ships to take back. It looks like I will have to expand the fleet by several ships.

Re: Terran, 1.08 Balanced Mod Game Test
 

It's good to hear that the AI is at least doing something. I did some quick tweaks for the AI to build more units in addition to adding more types of ships to their fleets...

Re: Terran, 1.08 Balanced Mod Game Test
 

The 11 ship fleet should not be much of a problem though, it is made up of at least 4 frigate classes. Each a step aove, so one has L1 DU's, the next has L2 DU's and so on. Also, they are only putting 1 DU on each ship.

it also does not appear they have researched any larger hulls, but I could be wrong.

Re: Terran, 1.08 Balanced Mod Game Test
 

Had the largest battle yet, 7 in my fleet vs 11 in theirs. I came away victorious. They lost 10/11 of their frigates with the surving one 70% damaged. I did not lose a single ship, although half of them have significant damage, one is at 99%.

The reason I won, even outnumbered, was their fleet was a mix of obsolete ships with only 1 or 2 newer ones. My 2 missile frigates also tore them up. My fleet was made up of my latest designs (although at least a dozen turns old).

I have plenty of supplies due to the new supply ship, but repairs will be an issue.

Re: Terran, 1.08 Balanced Mod Game Test
 

I'm guessing the AI design didn't have PD?

Re: Terran, 1.08 Balanced Mod Game Test
 

No PD, currently all the designs I have seen are just 1 DU ships.

Re: Terran, 1.08 Balanced Mod Game Test
 

My last incursion was a failure and I was forced to retreat. My ships ran our of ammunition. Guess I need to bring more freighters along. Also, I just designed a mobile repair ship which should help matters.