The Battle of Urdur

[sledneck]

I had to share this battle with someone, and my roommates don't appreciate this game, so here goes.

 

Each of my Imperial Sectors has a sector fleet, based at the world with all the shipyards for that sector. In this case, it was the Mayagil sector on Urdur, with 12 Advanced Shipyards. My fleet had 2 ISD IIs, 2 VSD IIS, 3 Lancers, and an Interdicter Cruiser. 27 TIE Interceptors total were on the the planet and the fleet. I'm playing against the computer, so I know this would have been alot different against a human opponent, but those nasty Rebels jump in-system with 2 Bulwarks, 2 Liberators, 2 Medium transports, an Escort Carrier, and a CC-7700 Interdicter. He has 22 fighters: 13 A-wings, 5 Y-wings, 3 B-wings, and 1 X-wing.

 

So I figure, what the hell, I'll at least take out one of his Liberators for this treachery. We start pounding away at eachother, and I manage to reduce both his Liberators down to only nocombatant systems, like tractor beams, hyperdrives, and engines. They have no shields and no weapons and about 1/3 of their hull left. By this time, my fighters and lancers have dealt with his fighters, so I put them on his first Bulwark. One of my ISD IIs, the Howe, has only about 500 hps left on the hull and no systems, one of my VSD IIs is completly gone, and the other has about 100 hps left. All I have now is one ISD II, the Anson, with failing shields, plus my interdictor and 3 lancers and about 4-5 fighter squadrons. This is where the human opponent would slag the Anson, but the comp decides to pound on my lancers. I manage to take his first bulwark down to a heap of metal by the time he destroyed all my lancers and slagged my interdictor. I'm thinking...good run, now that bulwark obliterates my ISD. Nope. HE TRIES TO SHOOT THE INTERCEPTORS DOWN WITH HIS BULWARK. Meanwhile, his 2 transports and the carrier are taking their toll on my fighters, who are uselessly taking potshots at the bulwark, and the Anson can't seem to get through those damned shields. Then, bless that loyal crew, the Howe comes back into the fight with minimal weapon recharging, but its enough to help take down the shields on the bulwark, and then onto reducing it to slag. Throughout this whole engagement, the Anson never lost shields or any other systems because that AI is stupid. I didn't autocalc the end of the battle then because I was afraid if they rebel AI is this dumb, my AI would somehow lose despite my heroic stance. So I continue wearing down the hull on the bulwark, when I noticed I'm getting shot from offscreen, and what do you know one of his liberators fixed their weapons. So I turned around and dealt with him, only to notice the first bulwark crew has managed to fix their shields AND weapons. Now I have lost all my fighters, the Anson is still healthy, the Howe has minimal weapons and has started getting shields back, and my interdictor got a few guns working as well. So after about 6 minutes of pounding on the bulwarks shields, the recharger finally goes out and I take him out. Then I mopped up the rest of them.

 

Final losses:

Imps: 1 VSD II, 3 Lancers, 27 TIE Interceptors

Rebs: 2 Bulwarks, 2 Liberators, 2 Medium transports, 1 CC-7700, 1 Escort Carrier, and 22 fighters.

 

FINAL SCORE:

Humans: 1

AI: 0

[Texas_Fett]

Impressive victory, sledneck! Although, it sounds like you're yet another person to experience an A.I. 'hiccup'. On top of that, you could've been dealing with 38 fighter squadrons (10 for each BBC, 6 for each Liberator, and 6 for the Escort Carrier), which means they attacked you with just over half of their fighter complement; that's a nice break!

 

I've had somewhat similar results playing as the Alliance. I had a system with about ten squadrons of X-Wings and a Y-Wing squadron or two when an Imperial fleet jumps in featuring an Impstar, three vicstars, a carrack and only three or four TIE fighter escorts. I immediately jumped on the carrack with the Y-Wings and X-Wings once they'd vaped the TIE's. I think I lost only one Y-Wing squadron before the carrack was destroyed. Then I just worked my way up the ladder, taking out all three vicstars one-by-one. Then I attacked the Impstar, although once it's shield recharge dropped one level it turned tail and retreated. I was left about six X-Wing squadrons.

 

It was interesting since they usually retreat once the fighter screen is eliminated, not after they lose three capital ship.

[ElvisMiggell]

Ahhh, the fabled AI of Rebellion... grreat isn't it.

 

I've seen all sorts of crazy tactics from my pc over the years, and except for when i was first starting out, they never won. One of these days, i'm gonna get my mate who codes AI for a games company to have a look at Rebellion and see what he can do.

[Cain]

Pls..pls do that !

[ElvisMiggell]

I thought that's the reaction i might get.

 

This is what happens when you meet computing students at uni.

[Cain]

just beeing suportive with your action

[ElvisMiggell]

Aye well, he's grraduating this year so he's very busy.

[luckless666]

i remember i had corcuscant defended by just fighters, though it was something like 55-60 TIE Defender squadrons. The rebs jump in with by no means small fleet (at least two Bulwarks).... and instantly turn tail and retreat! Is this a hiccup in the AI?

 

[EDIT] I also remember this time (i would love to make a story about this, it was really good at the time but it was 5+ years ago, and would have to think it through before commiting it to paper\computer screen) which demonstrates how dumb the AI can be. I'd captured Luke quite late in the game and Darth Vader took him to see the Emperor (on a side note, does look ever turn?) Luke managed to defeat both of them and escaped!!! needless to say the Empire was on high alert, and, Grand Admiral Thrawn was appointed Regent. Much of the surrounding Sector fleets commited a portion of their ships to the protection of Coruscant, whom was the last bastion of the empire before it fell. It was luckily due to the efforts of an Imperial Intelligence officer working in the field that discovered the location of the captured Emperor and Darth Vader (for some reason, and this is the problem with the AI, they were kept on the same planet!) Thrawn actted quickly, and ordered several seperate fleets to rendevous at a nearby planet to the Emperors location. In all, there was three SSDs (thats all i remember, but i think there were around 10 ISD IIs, 6 VSDs, 15 Carracks, and a full compliment of fighters and troops) Needless to say a mighty armada, and what should they face? what had the cunning rebels put up to defend the captured leaders of the empire? Two X-wing squadrons. Admiraly, the engaged my fighters and needless to say they were wiped out. Planetary bombardment ensued and finally a Full Legion of Dark Troopers descended onto the planet and freed the Emperor.

 

Bit of a long winded way of saying how stupid the AI is to leave the emperor and darth vader in the same place and then defend them with a total of two X-wing squadrons!?

[Chimera]

I'm surprised they didn't escape. My favorite tactic with prisoners of that magnitude is to put them on a bulk transport/star galleon with 6 top anti-espionage troops and a general, then bounce the transport from one end of the galaxy to another.

 

They can't escape while in transit

[Texas_Fett]

That works to a point. I've had my 'prison fleet' arrive in-system after crossing the known galaxy only to have a prisoner escape as soon as the fleet drops out of hyperspace. So it appears that the AI does, indeed, allow them a chance to escape, but it delays it until they are actually able to do it. Of course, it's easy to recover escaped prisoners; just look at the nearest enemy planet from the point of escape. That's where they went! (incidentally, this tactic works the same for retreating enemy fleets that you want to track down) I've been able to capture the escapee with the same prison fleet by beating them to their destination and waiting for them to arrive.

[Cain]

i remember i had corcuscant defended by just fighters, though it was something like 55-60 TIE Defender squadrons. The rebs jump in with by no means small fleet (at least two Bulwarks).... and instantly turn tail and retreat! Is this a hiccup in the AI?

 

 

 

Well I was testing ships and I send a Bulk Battelstation on steroids on the first day's to coruscant and that old TIE managed to destroy it so don't underestimate the power of numbers ..... the game seems to give more credit to them also with a good commnder