How many Hard AIs on locked teams can you defeat?

from Sins Forums
I've been wondering how many hard AIs on a map with locked teams (all AIs on a team against human player) a good player should be able to fight off by himself.  I've done three before, but I got lucky that game.  I find it's a hell of a fight to defeat two, and it really helps if I have to defend no more than two chokepoints mid game.  I also do best as Advent.  If I don't get hammered down early game and get a couple of caps leveled up nicely, I can use the Advent's potent abilities to fight off a superior force.

I play most of these games on Random medium maps.  I really don't know what a good player should be able to handle, and I was wondering how well the rest of the Sins community can do in this sort of set up.
strategy
6,876 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
well... hard ones on locked I have done as many as 5 on a random map. It can be done but only because the AI does not consider it's ally fleets when looking at the balance of the battle... so when I bring in a decent fleet ALL the AIs flee the area. After that the hard bit is killing the first few AIs off... if you focus on one player at a time you can knock them out... particularly because the other AI's will actually help you by colonizing any planets you wipe out behind you denying them to the original owner... so I more or less cheated and beat the AI by establishing a good choke point or 2 then venturing out only long enough to toast a few planets at a time and letting the other AI's colonize behind me. Their combined fleets could have forced any choke point I held at any time but no single fleet could match mine plus the defenses so they never seriously tried. Also helps if you can push one AI out early... I can often manage this by the time I have the first fleet cap researched if I push hard.

But I have no idea other than that. I can fight to a stand still on 9 AI hard locked on a team but can never get out of the choke point long enough to kill one AI player all the way off... their combined fleet capacity was just too much and my choke points would never get a break long enough for me to get a good offense going.

I am not a great player though so I am guessing there are plenty of people who can manage 9 hard AI's. I would love to see a replay of how it was done if any one has one...

Also be nice if they fixed the AI's so they recognized the combined power of all allied fleets instead of just their own. In games with allied AI's it is annoying when your ally begs you for help at a planet and you send a back up fleet only to have your ally flee the battle =).

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
All of them :P

9 vs 1, hard locked teams story

To be fair that was a while ago now and in 1.2 before they changed the AI. I haven't tried since due to work, but it's sure to have been done since in 1.4 as several people seemed to be in the middle of their own 9vs1 game. Some surviving on unfair with TEC even, which is far more than I could handle personally.

I'd love to see some of them post their storyboards. Gotta be someone out there sitting on an epic.

As to the viability of such an op, it seems to depend heavily on the starting position. More than two choke points and I'm toast early game.

Cheers,
Mopy
CursorFX - Customize your Windows cursor
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
More than two choke points and I'm toast early game.
End of quote


Every time I've tried to take more than three, that tends to happen. One or two chokes can be dealt with, especially once I get a pair of Radiances up to lvl 6.
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
Surprisingly few.

Like others have said, beyond 3 seems to be a real pain, mostly because it just seems to become a sea of Light Frigates from all directions, even with two chokepoints when a bunch are in the same system, the sheer volume has gotten to me. The real frustrating part though is that the Light Frigates are defeatable, even on multiple fronts, but the AI still loves the Siege Frigates, which serve them well n these situations. Having to take time out from the thirty Cobalts that just arrived to try to stop the Siege Frigates from burning the world from under me is rough.

I'm going to be trying later though, maybe the map will favor me and I can do a 7 or 9 AI game...
Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top
Mopes that was... impressive. Your story line was fantastic. You also displayed a better understanding of how to head off the enemy fleets and reduce pressure on a choke point than I have. Seems I have a lot to learn still.
Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top
Most I've ever done is 1 vs 9 with 5 hards, 2 mediums, and 2 unfair. I didn't even notice the difference(challenging wise)when I play 4 mediums. The only difference is it took 13 hours(not straight ofcourse). Most of my games only run for 4-6 hours. As long as you take your time and don't try to rush the ai, unless to snag a MUST HAVE choke point, you do alright.
Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top
9 Ais with current patch that would be nuts lol, I may try that just for a laugh