Apocalypse
Deathstars a comin
just did one plannet strategy, woweeeee that Tech. Started on Science nexus around 2265ish, got fully finished before 2300. 1 plannet, 300 Science. Much POWA!
I was jump driving all over the place long before most. Its a strain on fleet building just having 1 spaceport. Slow go at 1 ship every 120-160 days (depending on traditions etc and a few other leader bonuses etc), 20 years only yielding 60 battleships means that losses hurt, expecially with each engagement, even if its 200k vs 100 or 150k- is gonna see you lose 3-6 BB a go, so each little pew pew setting you back- expecially against an enemy like an awakened.
Anyway- 100years in, benevolents get all awakened. so. Rather than risk them pewing my shit before my vassels are capable i had to submit. That caused me to lose my vassels and tributries.
When war in heaven kicked in, even with a 8 systems or so, my awakened lost their fleet against the military isolationist with just 2 systems. I had been waiting, took my fleet in at the same time my old vassels (who ceeded to my awakened) jumped in so we sorta combined forces and we killed the Military awakened. As soon as the war ended I decced the Benevolents in their weakened state and wore them down, popping a starport and dropping troops and causing them trouble. eventually, broke their fleets back and that was that. meanwhile the super federation that formed while i was unable to do diplomacy also attacked this Awakened.
I regrouped now free, technologically advanced into repeatable techs. Attacked after 10years recapturing my tributaries and vassels and finishing off the awakened. I attacked and captured the other Fallen empires sat on their ass then released the plannets as vassels, and ceeded the other planets in the fallens space to that vassel.
Suddenly vassel with Maxed Tech, pimped homeworlds with the sweet buildings on them and my ethics.
By this time i had my dyson sphere making energy trivial.
I decided to keep a few key systems from the awakened, a 25planet gaea.- but after building a nexus of my own- I frontiered outpost someone elses Nexus that Spawned broken. So. 600 science plz.
In the end, 2450 in. 2xfleets of 500k, defeated war in heaven, defeated contingency (i had a fleet of around 800 at that point, the contingency fleets were roaming 400k and the process hubs had 880k but i fed my vassels my excess and they had fleets of 300k) so contingency got stomped.
Just as the Super federation fleets jumped in to finish off the contingency ghost signal final system and moved next to my fleets i war decced them.
No more superfederation fleet. Finished off the Contingency, the devouring swarm hive mind that i tributised (they were never going to be loyal is why didnt vassel them so might as well rape their eco), took 3 members of the superfederation as my protectorates.
And then won the game.
With over 1mil total fleet I still was at +1.2k energy and 1.8k minerals. I had around 210 battleships. My armour was such that I didnt need any armour plates to get to 90% armour cap so Could fit 4 shields. Each battleship was approx 5.1/4.9 (XL vs PD) BBs. I had 4 planets to maintain a quicker ship build. repeatable techs (25 tiers in) took around 25-30months to finish.
I didnt reroll the game at any point, this was first time in. Things got trouble when i attacked a neighbour who already didnt like me due to ethics and he took out my solo spaceport around 45 years in, I daisy fortressed up the home system, and my simple fleet of around 8-12 battleships just had to do what they could, he had a large fleet volume though at around 25k, similar to mine. my fortress had some upgrades to HP so they soaked a lot and kept taking out his ships, eventually I got ontop of the situation but i feared that if he got his shit together he could have landed troops.
Fun!
Never underestimate the cleverness of your playerbase.
Think I've finally figured things out after 70 hours.
- Learned to split my first 3 ships up and send them around as scouts immediately after starting. Replacing a corvette that dies instantly upon entering a NPC-invested system is far easier than replacing a level 4 scientist.
- Learned not to place mining stations over planets with a mere 2 minerals, as it's just not worth it.
- Learned to place frontier outposts only over stars with resources, so I have something worth the upkeep.
- Learned to recruit extra scientists and swap them around as you research tech.
- Figured out how armies and planet invasions work! Makes a lot of sense now. Still hate that fortifications immediately start healing if your fleet gets distracted by approaching units.
- Have yet to survive any defensive wars, but have won 1 offensive war (due to a friendly empire doing an earlier wardec against the same entity) and negotiated white peace in another.
Current run is in a 400-star spiral and diplomacy is being waged left and right atm, but one of my neighbors is gearing up to invade me, I think. Can't do a pre-emptive strike since my fleet power is lacking and he has a defensive pact. Time to build up more spaceports, boost that fleet size and wait, I guess.
defense stations help a lot, fight next to those, if things get harsh fight within a defense station (if you dont have fortress) thats also next to a starport for an extra 2k fleet power.
If you go harmony you get bonus to pew pew in your space. look at those who hate you and start looking at their fleet setup, missiles? lazors? refit to counter.
setup a defensive pact with someone.
If you are playing as a warmonger then you gotta go balls deep with it, otherwise no friends and hostile intentions. that means big wide economy, lots of space, push boarders, hit people early, get an early vassel etc.
If you're interested in MP and not in Europes you should join: https://www.reddit.com/r/Stellaris/c...unity_discord/
I'm occasionally one of the lobby hosts for the main events.
Followed through with my current run to the end.
Decided it was better to have weaker, divided entities fight for me rather than against me. Eventually cottoned on to the idea that I should wardec newly-liberated planets with the goal of vassalizing them. Worked out pretty well! I just had to be quick with the wardec, before people set up defensive pacts or supported independence with the new empires. Oh, be assured those pacts were made (against my wishes), but my wardec was first, and took priority. Immediately after one such war (against Neborite Imperium's former holdings), I was invited to a federation. Not my plan to side with this particular species, but I would be foolish to turn it down.
Pic, I'm Tau'ri: https://i.imgur.com/ZbLmss5.jpg
More entities like Democratic Ozkox Confederation joined our banner, making our triad a force to be reckoned with. Decided to pick on Neborite again (my idea to wardec them, the others were all too happy to join in), vassalized. Domanna was next, but they first made a defensive pact with my southern neighbor, who was a slaving despot. Bah, I don't need a war in my backyard, but a brilliant move on their part. Fended off a probing attack, then sent my fleet north and took out half of Domanna with my fed friends. Domanna splits, I wardec and vassalize the offshoot. Afterwards, we wardec my southern neighbor. I take out two of his frontier outposts and let my federation roll his fleet. Vassalized.
Wanting to further mycontinental soviet unionfederation's reach, I wait out the truce period, then wardec what's left of Domanna and vassalize them. Friendly AI doesn't seem to mind my greed, for some reason, and they're willing to do wars for a mere "humiliate", or no benefit at all. Now all that's left is Korinth and Uv-Xantt, who have a defensive pact with each other. I ask my federation partners to wardec them. They refuse. I ask to invite them to the federation. They refuse. The hell? Now what?
I'm sitting at 62/64 worlds needed for a federation victory, and no one wants to wardec. All that's left is...a fallen empire to my south: Holy Guardians (red). I don't want to fight them, but there's no one else to fight to get a win. Surprisingly, everyone else is willing to fight them if I demand 2 of their planets be ceded to my vassal. Do the wardec, get stomped by an 80k fleet.
Welp. Replace my savegame for the umpeenth time since I'm on ironman mode, try again a few times. Finally win. In hindsight, we were able to take another world or two, but I didn't need it for the victory.
Pic: https://i.imgur.com/hWHD0ME.jpg
So yay, I win! Decide to build a science nexus, without knowing what's needed. 2405 rolls around and...
"We've detected some sub-space disturbances."
Uh oh. It's the Unbidden.
90k defense fleet. Multiple 30k roaming fleets. Yeesh, glad I set crisis strength to 0.25x. They proceed to tear the largest empire in half. Everyone else joins the federation, except for the fallen empire. We could have stopped them if we massed our forces and struck right away, but we couldn't coordinate. Everyone was doing their own thing. I and the others eventually beat them back to their portal system, with occasional intrusions by them. Apparently, the AI won't concern itself with them unless they cross into your territory.
Sent several suicide 20k and 30k fleets over a 20-year period to fend off incursions and whittle down their numbers. Decide to build a frontier outpost next to their system to goad the AI into dogpiling them. It worked, and right after my last 30k fleet died whittling down their 64k fleet a bit, everyone jumped in and finished them off.
Victory!
I would say it's definitely possible to do it without the Nexus. But without Galactic Force Projection you'll probably need to go wide in the mid game.
Viking, n.:
1. Daring Scandinavian seafarers, explorers, adventurers, entrepreneurs world-famous for their aggressive, nautical import business, highly leveraged takeovers and blue eyes.
2. Bloodthirsty sea pirates who ravaged northern Europe beginning in the 9th century.
Hagar's note: The first definition is much preferred; the second is used only by malcontents, the envious, and disgruntled owners of waterfront property.
Bookmarks