The Algol Star Campaign

Game Setup

Players
-Fifth Imperium (Me)
-Trade Coalition (Hard AI)
Custom Galaxy
-1 Star
-20 Planets
-9 Artifacts
High Starting Resources
Flagships
No Marauders
Locked Teams
No Start Bounty


The Campaign

The Fifth Imperium quickly began its expansion from its home planet of Melchior. [0:21:09]The first planets to be colonized were the asteroids Cyllarus, Gethsemane, and Garumma and the terran planet Palisana. These four core worlds were rapidly followed by three worlds to galactic east; the desert world Veritas [0:28:11], the dead asteroid Admetos with its research archive [0:35:09] and the asteroid Peleus [0:37:26] with its ancient and mysterious power core. Two worlds to galactic west are colonized at almost the same time; the asteroid Xenophon [0:39:13] and the terran world Albellus [0:44:52] with its time dilated construction artifact. Shortly before Albellus is colonized [0:40:46] the Enemy shows his true intentions by launching an attack on the undefended world of Peleus made up of 16 Cobalt light frigates. This attack quickly destroys much of the infrastructure that has been built at Peleus since its colonization. The Fifth Imperium’s Fleet is currently engaged in clearing worlds of pirates two jumps and the sun to the galactic west of Peleus at the dead asteroid Enid. The fleet is ordered to Peleus to defend the artifact that the asteroid holds. The fleet upon arriving at the star Algol discovers just how badly the Trade Coalition want Peleus and its secrets for themselves when sensors detect an additional 16 Cobalt Light Frigates clearing the sun’s orbit for a phase jump to Peleus. The Fleet as it is currently comprised will be unequal to the task of defending Peleus and many frigate crews are about to perish. The industrial might of the Fifth Imperium has begun to build a second fleet, comprised of light frigates and LRM frigates in a roughly 2:1 ratio. These reinforcements are being massed at Garumna two jumps away from Peleus in preparation for a mission to Peleus to relieve the beleaguered defenders and the soon to be shattered Imperial Fleet. [0:45:15]The Trade Coalitions additional 16 light frigates arrive at Peleus where they find no targets available, the first fleet having destroyed everything already. Knowing that relief is on its way and that the Trade Coalition fleets cannot be allowed to escape, the people of Peleus continue to build mines on their asteroids enticing the Coalition ships away from the edge of the gravity well so that they may not escape easily when the fleet does arrive. [0:46:57] The relief fleet is ordered to Peleus and the Imperial Fleet arrives at Peleus and descends upon the Coalition fleets with murderous fury that is quickly turned to cries of pain as the combined coalition fleets quickly destroy the frigates of the Imperial Fleet. As the last frigate of the Fleet dies the first ships of the relief fleet arrive to avenge their brothers’ deaths on the 24 remaining coalition ships which have surrounded the Fleet Flagship Illustria. The Coalition ships are so intent upon the Illustria that they do not respond as the ships of the relief fleet scythe through them resulting in the death of the Coalition attack fleet and the survival of every ship of the relief force [0:50:00]. The relief force is incorporated into the Imperial Fleet with the flagship Illustria.

The Coalition seems to have been beaten back as all is quiet for a long while with only the occasional one ship raiding party including the first sighting of the Coalition Flagship Achronus in a raid on the terran world Albellus. A light ship factory and Capital ship factory are built at Peleus to better re-supply the Imperial Fleet in its upcoming assault on the worlds of the Coalition. The ship yards begin construction of capital ships and Krosov siege frigates. The 6 siege frigates and the five cap ships the yards at Peleus construct during this time are the last ships to be produced by the Fifth Imperium

{JUMPING TO THE ACTION}

THE ANNEXATION OF CASSINI
[1:09:00] The Imperial Fleet (TDN Illustria {Level 7 Kol Battleship}, 30 Cobalt Light Frigates, 15 LRM Frigates) jumps into the gravity well of the Coalition dead asteroid world of Cassini which is defended by 3 Gauss defense platforms. There is also a coalition fleet (2 Garda Flak frigates, 23 Cobalt Light Frigates) present in the system which does not attempt to engage the Imperial fleet and instead jumps out to the Coalition asteroid Anteros. The system falls easily due to the long range of the LRM frigates which destroy the three Gauss cannons without a casualty on either side, allowing the Illustria to move in to bombard Cassini. The Dunov class Battlecruiser Magnius jumps into Cassini [1:13:50]. The six Krosov frigates of the Imperial siege strike force jump into Cassini [1:15:46]

THE ANNEXATION OF ANTEROS
[1:16:57] An Imperial scout frigate jumps into the Anteros system and is promptly destroyed by the Coalition fleet (Coalition Flagship Achronus {Level 5 Kol Battleship}, 5 Garda Flak Frigates, 30 Cobalt Light Frigates, 5 Hoshiko Robotics Cruisers) in the system. Upon the destruction of the Imperium's scout frigate at Anteros, the Fleet slowly moves into position to phase jump into the Anteros system. During this preparation the Imperium Akkan class Battlecruiser Ithica is completed at the Peleus shipyards and begins to move to Cassini.
[1:19:16] The Imperial Fleet Jumps into Anteros and finds the Coalition fleet(Coalition Flagship Achronus {Level 5 Kol Battleship}, 6 Garda Flak Frigates, 30 Cobalt Light Frigates, 8 Hoshiko Robotics Cruisers) at the precise spot at which it emerged from Phase space preparing for a jump into Cassini for a counterattack. Before the Imperial Fleet can properly engage the coalition fleet it has jumped to Cassini leaving its asteroid Anteros at the mercy of the Imperium. Note: At this point in time I did something very stupid and sent my entire fleet back to Cassini forgetting that 1) I had no hope of catching the Coalition fleet and 2) The Coalition fleet would most likely jump back to Anteros This resulted in all ships of the enemy fleet escaping for a time, although my fleet was able to chased the Achronus to the ice world of Aharon resulting in the capture of Aharon. Also in this time frame, my second Kol (The Ultimus) was completed and began moving towards Cassini. The Ultimus was present for the capture of Aharon. During the annexation of Aharon, the Sova class carrier Mobius and the Marza class Dreadnaught Karamazov were completed and moved to Cassini marking the end of all ship construction by me for the rest of the game.


THE SECOND ANNEXATION OF ANTEROS
[1:36:28] The Imperial Fleet (TDN Illustria {Level 7 Kol Battleship}, TDN Ultimus {Level 3 Kol Battleship}, TDN Magnius {Level 3 Dunov Battlecruiser}, TDN Karamazov {Level 3 Marza Dreadnaught}, TDN Ithica {Level 3 Akkan Battlecruiser}, TDN Mobius {Level 3 Sova carrier}, 30 Cobalt Light Frigates, 16 LRM Frigates) Jumps into Anteros to claim it for the Imperium. The Coalition fleet as in the first annexation of Anteros does not attempt engagement but rather jumps out to the Coalition homeworld of Vanadis. The annexation of Anteros goes essentially the same way the annexation of Cassini did, with the LRM frigates easily destroying the Gauss cannons from outside their range while the main fleet waits for the path to be clear. Once the gauss cannons in the fleet’s immediate way are destroyed, the fleet begins to attack the infrastructure of Anteros. While the siege strike force moves towards Anteros from Cassini. Anteros and its entire infrastructure are destroyed before my siege frigates jump in.

THE VANADIS MASSACRE
[1:43:00] The Imperial Fleet jumps into Vanadis, the Home system of the Coalition. The fleet has had no changes to its make up since the annexation of Anteros and nothing except for cap ship levels will change for the rest of the game. I call this a Massacre due to the fact that the Coalition flagship along with essentially all of the Coalition fleet were destroyed here while they tried to flee from the impending doom brought by the Imperial fleet. Vanadis and its entire infrastructure were destroyed and recolonized only 4 minutes after the beginning of the massacre. It is after this four minutes that the Coalition fleet jumps into Vanadis from their asteroid Kanroku which only has one phase jump connection (to Vanadis). Because my entire fleet was free to attack the coalition fleet was destroyed as it attempted to escape the tightening noose. The computer did show some tactical sense by splitting up the fleet into two groups, unfortunately the second group was not big enough to occupy my fleet for long, and I think this was due more to pathing issues than any tactical decision by the comp. [1:48:42] Coalition Flagship and the sole capital ship of the Coalition, TDN Achronus is destroyed by Fifth Imperium bombers. Ten Light frigates and a Flak frigate are all that escaped the massacre.

THE END OF THE COALITION
After the defeat of Vanadis, five Coalition worlds remained (2 dead asteroids, 2 asteroids, and 1 volcanic planet) each of these planets fell even easier than the ones detailed in this campaign report. The only one that was annoying was the dead asteroid Enid which was one jump away from my planets because it was the last one, and the AI had no ships to defend it with and besides all this, it was only a DEAD asteroid world meaning that the AI didn’t have a snowball’s chance in you know where due to the fact that they couldn’t have built anything even if I gave them the time to.

AFTER ACTION REPORT

So after that long winded description of perhaps the most boring campaign in history, here are my conclusions on what was missing in the order of importance that I see them in.
MAIN PROBLEM: The computer just isn’t aggressive enough. By the time I had 9 worlds in my empire, it only had 6, two of which were dead asteroids with out any reason for being colonized. My only dead asteroid colonization was because it had an artifact on it that I found very useful.

1) Computer runs rather than fight ("The Vanadis Massacre"): The computer refuses to meet in open combat unless it either has an overwhelming advantage or has destroyed something in the system already. Due to these two conditions the only time the AI actually engaged me was the first engagement of the game when they had 32 frigates against my defenseless planet and later, 32 frigates against one flagship and 12 frigates. There does not seem to be any programming in the AI’s to encourage defense of a planet (see the Vanadis Massacre and the Second Annexation of Anteros)

2) Abilities override "weapons range only" engagement mode: This should be self explanatory but just to be clear I’ll use the Marza as an example. When the Marza jumps into a system on weapons range only, it sees a hostile planet that needs bombing and so auto uses its "raze planet" ability which requires it to move so that it is in range of the planet. Instead of not using raze planet and following the weapons range only engagement order, the Marza moves itself straight into the teeth of the systems defenses to get in range of the planet, and then instead of returning to position, it sits at the point to which it moved and follows the weapons range only order from there.

3) Computer puts bounty out even though no other players and no marauders: Self Explanatory

3) The Game does not have any forced surrender points: Normally I don’t like games that force you to surrender at a certain point because usually, I’m not actually losing that badly. But in Sins, the game needs to force a player or comp to surrender when they literally have no hope of surviving. In the game described above, I had to find the Coalitions last planet, which was a dead asteroid. The Coalition did not have any colonizing capability, and it had maybe a couple dozen combat craft still somewhere on the map, none of which were siege capable. This means that even if they managed to take down all of my infrastructure, and my entire combat force, I could still rebuild thanks to the fact that I still had several inhabited worlds and even if I ran out of metal and crystal due to no mines (assuming they could destroy all my mines) I could have bought more from the black market and built defenses and infrastructure around my planets and eventually rebuilt my fleet. So perhaps the victory condition should be all possible home planets destroyed and no siege capable ships available.

4) Changing abilities: When assigning cap ships ability points to abilities, there needs to be a way to reassign the points. Many times I have clicked the wrong ability button, due to lag or inattention, resulting in a cap ship that doesn’t have the abilities I want. Abilities should not be able to be changed indefinitely, but some sort of confirmation dialogue or something similar should be added to deal with this admittedly minor problem.

5) Missiles Track indefinitely: If a missiles target phase jumps out of the system the missile simply veers to track it down the phase line. Obviously it can’t catch up to the target, unless the target sits at the end of the phase line for a while, but the missile will simply shoot down the phase line indefinitely, if the target then comes back down the phase line, the missiles change direction to follow it back to the other end. It looks something like a one dimensional version of Pong. This obviously isn’t major, but in a large enough game this could be a graphics resource nightmare.

6) Sidebar scroll bar appears when no need to scroll down: Self explanatory

7) Akkan ability Ion bolt has no weapons arc requirement: Again Self explanatory

8) Need easier selection methods for empire color andplanet/star/artifact prevalence: Something like drop down menus or text entry would work for this problem.

9) Phase Lines Cross planets Gravity Wells:

BALANCING ISSUES

At the moment I really only have one balancing beef, and that is that the Marza does not live up to its build description which says that it specializes in long range attacks. This seems odd since the Marza has the same attack range as any other capital ship although its missiles do seem to be able to go past this, but a specialist in long range weapons should have more than one long range weapons system.