I Got Owned By The Borg!

posted on January 9th, 2004, 5:02 pm

I have to salute you guys behind the mod, I was well and truly slaughtered by the Borg on high AI on the 2Blue map the other day, first time the AI has ever beaten me.

I played Hard AI games against both Klinks and Roms (and both together) and come out triumphant, albeit with some heavy strategy thanks to the improvements in the mod.

I was playing Feds, and focused on setting up a mining operation at my two moons while building up a shipyard, science and engineering station so I could build a handful of Akiras and Intrepids to cover the base, resources soon ran dry, but I needed to ensure the base (which is rather wide open on this map) was capable of defending itself.

With the resources that I had left, I build and advanced yard and four Excelsior-II class ships. By this point the Borg were sending one or two Interceptors and Assimilators at a time to attack the base, which I expected. In need of more resources to further my efforts and begin a heavy fleet, I sent a construction ship and the Excelsior-IIs over to the nearest set of moons to find that after quickly dealing with an Interceptor, were not being mined.

I set up the mining stations and used the new influx of resources to begin to build a second outpost near them so I could use it to create new mining ships, and have a good defense against any Borg ships coming through the neighbouring wormhole, which I knew led to the Borg's second mining operation.

However a fleet of something like four Assimilators, two Spheres, a Diamond and Cube showed up and quickly destroyed the construction ship, and then the outgunned Excelsior-IIs. I didn't think the AI would do this. Fearing the safety of my nearby base, I built three Excelsior-IIs and two Sovereign class ships (yes i'd been working on research during the whole time), to prepare for the inevitable attack by the ships who took over the moons.

It came and I was ready, my defense fleet responded and I only lost one Intrepid class which was assimilated. Acting quickly, I sent out a Sovereign and Intrepid to take out the Borgs mining operation to reestablish my own as resources werent coming in fast enough. However it became more difficult when Borg Interceptors, Assimilators and Spheres emerged from the wormhole. Thinking this was the best the Borg could throw at this time, I sent some more Excelsior-IIs and Akiras from my base to help take them out, the battle raged on, in my favour, even as more Borg ships arrived.

It was nothing compared to the attack force on my base. Two more Cubes, a Diamond and many Assimilators and Spheres started to attack key areas of my base, while one of the Cubes began assimilating the weaker Intrepid class ships. I immediatley pulled back my ships from the moons (who had taken out most of their attackers anyway), but it wasnt enough as my mining ships started by be destroyed and resources came in too slow to create a 'rush defense'.

I eventually admitted defeat, totally shocked. I would have posted an Admirals Log but it was too depressing. Well done guys, you got the better of me!

posted on January 9th, 2004, 5:38 pm

Well, You got schooled by them they have a diferent way of playing that u werent used to so u got beat.

posted on January 9th, 2004, 10:06 pm

Hm, strange thing...

Perhaps I was lucky, or my map was easy, but after I read this, I simply had to try it myself once again.

Played on the 3 player map, that comes with FO.
Parties were Borg (AI Hard) and me (Federation).
They never even got close to my base.

I attached a shortened log to my post.

Attachments

Borg.txt

(1.22 KiB) Downloaded 304 times

Borg.txt

(1.22 KiB) Downloaded 301 times

[DOCa Cola]

posted on January 9th, 2004, 11:39 pm

Last edited by DOCa Cola on January 9th, 2004, 11:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.

nice report stylsy!
was interesting to read

posted on January 10th, 2004, 5:47 pm

Hm, strange thing...

Perhaps I was lucky, or my map was easy, but after I read this, I simply had to try it myself once again.

Played on the 3 player map, that comes with FO.
Parties were Borg (AI Hard) and me (Federation).
They never even got close to my base.

I attached a shortened log to my post.

With the 2Blue map, there was a second set of moons very close to my base, that may have influenced it.

[Lt.Cdr.White]

posted on January 10th, 2004, 7:46 pm

Last edited by Lt.Cdr.White on January 10th, 2004, 7:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Just tried it on 2Blue.

Ressources set to normal.

Borg (AI Hard) vs. Federation (Human)



I have to admit, it seems to be a "Borg map". Yesterday I tried the map with Romulans vs. Klingons and it was much easier.

Nevertheless, I could use my standard Federation tactics against the borg.

I started basic mining operations at once, built the light yard, send a venture to the moons at the wormhole, built a mining station at the dilitithium moon while building a science station (needed for SF Command) at my main base.

Then I built light defenses that could hold off the first wave of Borg attackers until I had my SF Command (strong ships for free ). I used those ships to defend my main base and my remote outpost.

Next step was to build up 2 small fleets at both outposts. Therefore I build an extra shipyard at the remote outpost.

When I had prepared everything, I had my first problem. A Borg wave destroyed many ships and I ran out of crew. I solved it by using my ressources (which I couldn't use to build ships because of the lack of crew) for defense platforms. Thus I had a good cover for my bases until I could built my second station, gaining more crew. From now, I had a station defending my remote outpost.

As the borg lost all their attacking vessels (several cubes were part of the attacking fleets), they suffered similar problems.

Because the remote moons are connected by the wormhole, I could use one single fleet to cover my station and attack his remote mining outpost. In case my outpost got attacked, I retreated through the wormhole and used my attacking fleet as a defense.

Doing so, Phase 2 of my tactics for that map worked. I conquered his 2 remote moons at the wormhole, building my own mining facilities.

Phase 3: Controlling 6 moons, I build 3 full fleets. I used 2 of them to block both "gates" around his main base. The only passages he could use to attack me.

After completing my third full fleet, I had some ships left which were defending my mining outpost and my "backup" outpost. As I knew he could not attack them anymore, I made a 4th fleet of those vessels which I held as a backup at my main base (while the other outposts were defended by platforms again, which I built dew to the low crew phase in the beginning).

Now I pulled my 3rd fleet (with Sovereigns, Defiants and so on) closer to the "gates". I then entered the area around his base with the two blockade fleets. When I knew his building placement, I used the 3rd fleet to attack the more heavily defended areas.

Concentrating the fire of a whole fleet on each single threat, I cut down all defenses very fast. The rest was easy.

I attached the log of it to my post.

Live long and prosper!

Attachments

AdmiralsLog_Commander__2004_01_10___20_22_.txt

(90.75 KiB) Downloaded 283 times

AdmiralsLog_Commander__2004_01_10___20_22_.txt

(90.75 KiB) Downloaded 274 times

posted on January 10th, 2004, 8:50 pm

hehe, nice to read your posts about your game experiences i just made new ai scripts based on this logs and the reports of other players and tested with detektor with good feedback we lost all 3 games in beta3 the ai will handle fleets and not only send single ships and will build up larger fleets nearing the end of the game hope you will like it.. but now back to development

posted on January 11th, 2004, 7:03 am

hmm, if there ever is a tournament, if the logs where saved they could be used to base ai scripts on for beta 3 jus an idea.

[Sugar Spice]

posted on January 28th, 2004, 7:16 am

Last edited by Sugar Spice on January 28th, 2004, 7:17 am, edited 1 time in total.

Try building millions of ships as your resource levels increase. Also place them just outside your base perimeter.
Works for me.