Cylons learn to play Stellaris against insane AI

[EvcRo]

Hello,

meet the Cylons

the years is 2050 in my first Stellaris game. I play very slow and often i forget what i wanted to do on the next Stellaris gaming session. So i will write it here.

A lot of stupid things will happen as this is a learning game.

Game Setup

1000 stars
10 AI + me the Cylons
no advanced AI or how they are called
insane AI difficulty
all FTL allowed (big mistake from me, more on that later)

Cylons are a happy and individualist race, with good mining skills. They suck at ground combat though and they are ugly (number six could easily disapprove this and it's funny when some bugs call number six repugnant )

Map situation in 2050 (no wars yet)

all empires are expanding in to the bellow arm.

Cylons have double the pop and planets of all other AI's but all AI's are superior on tech and most of them superior on fleet power.

The expansion part went good. After few tries i got a decent starting position. However around 2040 i learned that my race pick prevent me from using slaves and migration, kind of bad but i'm not gonna restart.

I established embassy with 3 of my neighbours and making plans to try my first war soon.

 

[Sailormarsfan1701]

subbed

 

[EvcRo]

subbed

thanks.

After 50 years of building stuff, between 2250 and 2255 i pumped out my fleet ever over limit because both my neighbors have superior fleet and tech.

The western neighbors are some nice bugs from which i get energy credits with my surplus minerals at 1.05:1 ratio so i'm not gonna attack them.

The eastern neighbor has 1 system deep in my territory, that will be the war goal. He has now equivalent fleet so let's try a war.

Trinnick system is the target.

On a side note i completely messed up my sectors, i think it's better to have fewer sectors (but with many planets) so your governors are better used on sectors.

 

[EvcRo]

The war went on for roughly 2 and a half years. I guess that in most wars you have to completely kill the initial enemy fleet anyway, no matter the war objective.

With 8 planets continuously producing ships, possible only because of high mineral production, eventually the enemy, despite having same fleet strength initially and superior tech, the enemy lost because could not keep up production and because the AI seems to like to keep his fleets split.

The most annoying part was the wormhole travel that the enemy used. So much trolling and running around catching fleets.

I also used 10-12 groups of 3-5 ships to clean up some 100 mining stations, to have the conquered space clear when peace hits but also crippling him a little for the next war.

The war was hard, lots of battles so for the next 10-15 i will focus on expansion (which is essential to be able to war against superior enemies). I will extend in the east , in the arm bellow, until is no longer possible to expand.

The enemy wrecks research was juicy, lots of high tech at around 50% progress, i guess a new war is needed for completion but i think enemy will have other techs , even higher.

Put 5 research ships at once to study debris , even the scientist in the blocked field took command of a ship to help

Empire status : 31 planets , 255 pops. Some say staying smaller is better for tech, in my opinion that's wrong, wars are won by the ability to produce ships continuously on many plantes = high mineral production , tech superiority is not so much extra damage.

 

[EvcRo]

After the first vassalization war (2280) that will come next i noticed vassals do not receive +100% on everything, they do not count as insane AI.

I read that end game events are triggered by any player/AI researching something. And insane AI has insane research speed.

So rule no 1 from now on is to vassalize everything fast. Standard conquering is to slow.

 

[EvcRo]

There is huge empty space south-east of me so the next 10 years are dedicate to boom expansion.

The year is 2273 and i nicely upped my minerals production.

As tech is concerned i guess priorities are for me:

1. Upgrades to buildings
2. Allow colonization of different planet types

A thing that was huge for expansion : a planet that could produce colony ships with birds that like desert. That opened a lot of new planets for my continental preference empire.

Encountered the first fallen empire in the south-east corner. There are a lot of juicy systems near them but rule no2 is no touching borders with fallen empires.

 

[EvcRo]

A nice moment when you send all science ships to do 6 projects at once. I think i got 3 skeletons projects at once

I want to notice the use of track on map button, it's good for organizing science ships to go there and start at once different projects

But track on map becomes invaluable when fighting wars. you usually kill few big stacks and 10's of tiny stacks, stations, starports and other small objects. I track on map the big stacks debris immediately after battle ends, to know where to research.

90% of the stolen tech progress comes from few big stacks

 

[EvcRo]

2277 , the war preparations are done, i think i gather some 30k fleet strength. Did some mistakes though, i created lots of small fleets to kill stations and stuff but later i changed my mind from conquering in steps to vassalization.

Insane AI research to fast and they may trigger end game to soon so in my thinking vassalization is faster to prevent that.

the enemy is the east purple empire

 

[EvcRo]

4 year War 2277 - 2281 : vassalizing 1 of my biggest opponents + 2 of his vassals

My fleet was 80% corvettes (3xLevel4 missiles + 2 crystaline plates - 500hp vettes and similar build destroyers), killed around 50k worth of enemy ships , again being able to continuously build on 9 spaceports proved essential as my losses were pretty high.

Got some juicy tech after, including level 3 torpedoes. I noticed i can't upgrade missile ships to new torpedo design, i guess it's normal ? upgrades only for same weapons type?

Empire status 2281 : growing nicely

Next target is my western neighbor, but after i build up my fleet again cause it's pretty small after this war.

The Fallen Empire in S-E it's stationary at -9 relation, hoping not to hear from them any time soon.

 

[EvcRo]

2284 : New war starts

My fleet is 10% destroyers and 45%-45% between 2 type of corvettes , one model with Missile 4 and the other with Torpedo 3.

Again AI is no match , maybe if he puts all fleets together would make a harder fight, but as it is now my 25k stack + allies is killing 5-10k enemy stacks one by one. There are losses but at +1000 minerals per month i can build 10 corvettes ery 1 and 1/2 months so i can replace my losses.

This is the 3rd war in 15 years time and i notice the other AI empires are not concerned.

At this point i'm pretty certain that vassalizing and after that dismantling all AI empires will go unopposed. The end game events and fallen empires seems to be the unknown.

 

[EvcRo]

2288 : a new batch of vassals

4 years later i have 3 new vassals (the opponent had 2 very small vassals himself)

there is some new space that can be colonized , few years now for colonization and preparing the 3rd big vassal war.

 

[EvcRo]

From the last war i got something Lance, that looks amazing from stats p.o.v.

The problem is that requires Large mount so i have to switch to destroyer fleet with 1 Large turret, this also means new destroyer special yards. I don't know yet, will see in a few years.

 

[EvcRo]

Year 2291 , moving the fleets in position for the new war

 

[EvcRo]

First integration option is now available , 4700 influence for a 25 colonies vassals , 130 years so integration is out

At some point, when i will hugely outnumber all AI's , i will release the vassals and fight 3-4 wars at once and grab 4-5 colonies / 15 years. Seems much faster than waiting 130 years for 25 colonies, and this is only a medium size AI empire.

For now i will aim to vassalize all galaxy in the next 30 years.

 

[Tumultuosus]

I must say I am in awe at your rate of expansion. In my game, it's ~2350, and I have only half of what you have ressource-wise.
But then, I am technologically superior to almost everyone in the galaxy, having unlocked tachyons/ gen V power/ max shields at circa 2300.
So, GG to you.

What is your evasion like with your corvettes?

 

[EvcRo]

I must say I am in awe at your rate of expansion. In my game, it's ~2350, and I have only half of what you have ressource-wise.
But then, I am technologically superior to almost everyone in the galaxy, having unlocked tachyons/ gen V power/ max shields at circa 2300.
So, GG to you.

What is your evasion like with your corvettes?

I think my style here is not good if aiming for high research practically i'm an expansionist spammer. but it compensates a little with the research i get from AI fleets , at least as combat is concerned

my corvettes evasion is 30% atm

 

[Tumultuosus]

I think my style here is not good if aiming for high research practically i'm an expansionist spammer. but it compensates a little with the research i get from AI fleets , at least as combat is concerned

my corvettes evasion is 30% atm

I'm more the peaceful/slow expansion type, so that explains this difference.

The amount of research you get from AI fleets is ridiculous, I mean, it seams to be +10% for a tech present in the design, not influenced by fleet size; so if you trap isolated ones, it's basically GG, the AI loses it's tech edge quite rapidly

 

[EvcRo]

I'm more the peaceful/slow expansion type, so that explains this difference.

The amount of research you get from AI fleets is ridiculous, I mean, it seams to be +10% for a tech present in the design, not influenced by fleet size; so if you trap isolated ones, it's basically GG, the AI loses it's tech edge quite rapidly

I might be wrong but i don't think it's +10% for a tech present in the design

i think it depends on stack size and is chance based. Big stacks (>5k) give +10% to 4-5 techs, small stacks give one +10% to a random tech from that group.

Not sure but i noticed tracked on map stacks (the big ones that i kill and mark) give lot's of tech , smaller ones only one tech +10% and all stacks have same few designs AI is using.

But anyway, several big stacks from a medium size AI empire is enough to get all battle techs they have and in that regard i agree is kinda easy to catch up on battle tech.

 

[EvcRo]

Year 2291 : A new war starts

 

[EvcRo]

Year 2295 : War Ends