Oh, and Vanechka, the compliment was sincere. The term "Pyrrhic victory" has it's origins in a man, one King Pyrrhus, and the results of a famous campaign of his. As such, it should be capitalized. Alot of people do not know the origins of the term, and would not do so.
I'm familar with the etymology being the term, but I was unsure as to whether or not a word/term derived from a name should be capitalized, this isn't the case in Danish. Thanks for clearing that up.
Also, the problem with AI, is that once you have experience with it's behavior, you can predict it almost flawlessly with practice. After your first few decisive game victories against the AI, nine AI are less effective against you than just one Human being.
I already pointed out how certain things were to my advantage. My exploitation of neutral resources gave me a boost much larger than it would have against humans. I also said that playing against AIs can't be compared to playing against humans. My point was to comment on the amazing brute force that Returning Armada gives you access to. The steady stream of free and fast reinforcements allowed me to beat back forces 4-5 times the size of my own (without any micro - didn't bother) on one front while I expanded on the other. That was after I had reached full fleet supply.
1) Travel between Phase Gates is not instantaneous. It is 40% faster movement speed than regular phase lanes. Also, sometimes the distance you are traveling, although in a straight line, is still vast enough to require significant time to traverse. Timing is the key to outmanouevering them, just as it is with all other races.
Do you quote 40% due to Enhanced Tunneling? It certainly doesn't gel at all with my experience with Phase Stabilizers. Don't forget the downtime associated with moving from one edge of planets' gravity wells to another that the Phase Stabilizers circumvent. The longer the distance, the bigger the speed increase. The response time of a good Vasari player is
far better than an equal TEC or Advent. The window of oppertunity is much, much smaller.
2) Rarely is a Vasari fleet larger than an equally supplied fleet of another race. If it is, they undoubtedly exploited Phase Gates to go into negative supply. Also, you misunderstand exactly what I meant by outnumbering... My waves of attack thing, I must have typed poorly, only a couple people seem to have said things akin to it's notion.
Again, that's very far from my own experience with the game, partly since Vasari is the sole race to receive a bonus to the fleet capacity thanks to Phasic Transmissions. And, don't forget that while the Vasari frigates individually use more supply points than the similar TEC or Advent, they are also that much better. We agree that one of the better ways to take on Returning Armada is to keep your upkeep at a level at which you can rapidly replace destroyed ships while targeting his stabilizers. It's far to easy for a fleet to collapse if the upkeep is 75%.
3) Totally situational. There is a cooldown on Phase Stabilizers for RA. Also, the key is operating your economy at a peak level to insure that you can replace your losses extremely quickly... For a Vasari to have these mega-fleets, means that they are near the maximum fleet supply - which makes their economy extremely susceptible to disruption. They can only "meat-grinder" so often, and while they are pulling it together, you can disrupt them. The key to victory is timing.
Yes, but you seem to dismiss the point that while your economy must supply a very large percentage of it's income to keep your military going, the Vasari's economy, although crippled by upkeep, gets off scot-free in this regard. This means that while his income might be much lower, it can be 100% applied to structures and technology. And yes, the key to victory is timing, but as already mentioned, the Vasari have an advantage over you in this aspect of the game as well.
As for scrapping the incoming ships for extra cash? *Shrug* It's really not that much, and scrapping ships... to make other ships... is mostly just a waste of time.
If there's a standstill in the fighting and you're at or near your fleet capacity, scapping free ships that are going to be replaced by more free ships practically instantanously, can be a valuable way to increase your income. One thing to remember is that the Vasari has Improved Salvaging. But more, thanks to the way that the Vasari economy functons with RA and the fact that upkeep doesn't influence scuttling, the resources received from scuttling are more worth than their face value initially indicates. Not that the Vasari in the mentioned situation should always scuttle his units instead of choosing the offensive, but it's certainly another option and perk that RA offers.
I've pointed out a number of different means of combatting RA. I've listed two changes that would essentially remove any "OP" of the ability, and if you notice - they are not extreme changes, hence, the ability isn't extremely over powered. At most, it gives you an advantage against the average player who's mind is unable to grasp anything more than purely linear forms of attack.
I strongly disagree. Limiting the amount of Phase Stabilizers at each individual planet to just one instead of, as it stands now, two or three, effectively means that the potential rate at which the Vasari player can produce ships with RA at each planet is reduced with 50-66% It's a minor tweak, but it certainly doesn't have a minor effect. The Vasari player will have to expand to two- or threefold the planets if this change is implemented, to be able to rely on RA to the same degree as in 1.03. And I get the feeling that you agree with me that maneuver warfare is the best way to tackle RA. And that the bigger the empire, the more susceptible and exposed it is to that kind of opposition. It also helps that a single Phase Stabilizer can be targetet and destroyed much faster in a suprise attack than three, thereby adding at least another leg to enemy reinforcements' journey, which will increase their travel time significantly. This change will mean that Returning Armada will be turned into a powerful supplement to a Vasari player's strategy, and not the entire strategy itself.
BTW, sorry about quoting the beginning of your reply in the end of mine, but it just made more sense to put it there in the context of mine.
