Maelstrom Hadad bamboozled—it placed zero Alerts in inhabited systems this week!

[Aleks Zuno]

I am very happy to present the most delightful report that Maelstrom Hadad is free of Alerts this week, as far as inhabited systems are concerned. Using the excellent Alert report by @Ian Doncaster and applying a combination of Research samples and casual anti-xeno combat, Imperial Navy Intervention and Rescue has evicted the Thargoids from seven systems last week, six of which were chosen specifically to strangle every prospect they had for attacking Human systems:

• First was Col 285 Sector PM-B b14-5, an empty system. This was quite far from M. Hadad, making it very easy to clear, and doing so protected the populated system HIP 30260.
• Second was Col 285 Sector VN-Z b14-7; this only protected its neighbour VN-Z b14-6, but this was to stop the advance from moving in the direction of Brestla, and I was keeping an earlier promise not to ignore it.
• For the third system, I am particularly proud that we recaptured Yukait. Aside from being itself one inhabited system returned to us, doing this also protected Tau Puppis.
• The next were a pair; Col 285 Sectors RX-Z b14-0 and RX-Z b14-8, either of which would have attacked Ramandji again.
• Finally, Col 285 Sectors TS-Z b14-2 and TS-Z b14-3 were closer to M. Hadad and noticeably more difficult, but clearing them has stopped yet another attack at Ahol.

This is what we need to be doing! The recent Alert drive has been very impressive, as has the ever-present capacity to stop Invasions, though these can only ever hold the figurative line. Once enough inhabited Alerts are stopped in a cycle, by which I mean that the remainder are well within the capacity to stop them in the form of Invasions, I present that it would be lovely if that extra effort could be redirected onto Control systems. Ideally chosen as above, but otherwise at least recapture something!

There are a few ways to run Research operations in Control systems:

• The systems which are closer to us will have Conflict Zones present; these are great for taking your pick from multiple Thargoid Interceptors when they arrive, and the system AX forces present have a particularly useful purpose which I will discuss in a moment. I recommend that solo Commanders use these!
• With two or more Commanders using regeneration beams, by far the best approach is to drop close to a landfall planet if one is available, which will prohibit Swarms. For most planets it is best to drop manually before reaching the glide altitude, although for very small planets the Thargoids will insist on retreating to deploy a Swarm, so here you will need to glide further down.
• Two or more Commanders can also harvest in open space; this is less chaotic than with a Conflict Zone, but will need either removal of Swarms, or the method below of restarting the Thargoid. Either way, everyone needs to pay a bit more attention and be sure to relocate a few meters when the Thargoid gets a bit too close to the 5-kilometer limpet range limit.

In open space or a Conflict Zone, it is possible to prevent all Swarms after the first by restarting the Thargoid, which occurs when its present target either escapes or explodes. This is why Conflict Zones are recommended for solo Commanders; you can harvest Interceptors which are attacking system AX forces, and the Swarm clock restarts when they explode.

To restart a Thargoid with multiple Commanders in open space, the present Interceptor target should watch the starship clock and leave temporarily before Swarms start arriving. This is six minutes for a Cyclops, so I suggest making such a move after five minutes. One option is to high-wake out if your hold is full, and another is to use a low-wake while nav-lock is active, which should drop you back by your Wing immediately. We have not tried using Exit/Continue yet, but that would be a little bit naughty.

Efficiency notes:

• It is immeasurably more efficient with two Commanders than with one, mostly because it costs time to catch a Cyclops—we would drop close to a planet, but far enough from each other so that we each get our own Frame Shift Anomalies, then congregate if a Cyclops arrives. It then becomes possible to run samples back to a Fleet Carrier then return to the same Thargoid, taking turns that way. Regeneration is great while both are present.
• With two Commanders, the shield capacity places a limit on how much time one can spend storing samples and returning to the arena. In turn this limits how far away a useful planet can be, and may require replacing cargo space with shield cells. With three or more Commanders, this limitation disappears.
• If gravity and Thruster power allows, park your starship upside-down while at a planet. This is because the Thargoid spends the majority of its time at a higher altitude, which means your returning limpets come mostly from above, and that will collect them more quickly.

CMDR Aleks Zuno
Imperial Navy Intervention and Rescue

 

[CMDR Vulkarius]

That was one crazy week, quite fun to make a dent though
Comms and trust is also vital with two when relying on the skill of the other to get a good manual drop/glide and regen your shield in time!

 

[Ian Doncaster]

It's been very interesting over the last month or two - as we've (and it has definitely been a team effort) started to be able to collect and analyse enough data to understand what the Thargoid strategy is, and in recent weeks to predict their future targets with high precision - to see how that strategy could be countered by various human approaches.

The "default" human strategy is best described as "reactive loss-aversion" - top priority is placed on avoiding the loss of further inhabited systems to the Thargoids, so the majority of effort goes into Invasions and (more recently) inhabited Alerts. As a result, the Thargoids are able to capture other systems largely unhindered, so the average number of inhabited systems targeted increases over time, and as inhabited systems require a stronger defence than an uninhabited system at the same distance, the average difficulty increases over time as well.

Strategies like this one have the potential to flip the nature of the conflict - rather than reactively fighting in systems the Thargoids choose, there's the opportunity to make the Thargoids fight primarily in systems which humans choose, and which are therefore for various reasons easier to defend. That might well make the difference between losing 5-10 systems a week, and gaining 5-10 systems a week.

It's certainly theoretically possible with approaches like this one to establish a defined perimeter over a 3-6 week cycle - which doesn't have to be the Thargoid's preferred spherical one, and is a little more efficient if it isn't - and then be able to recapture any systems outside that perimeter at leisure, before proceeding to tighten the perimeter further.

 

[Aleks Zuno]

Strategies like this one have the potential to flip the nature of the conflict - rather than reactively fighting in systems the Thargoids choose, there's the opportunity to make the Thargoids fight primarily in systems which humans choose, and which are therefore for various reasons easier to defend. That might well make the difference between losing 5-10 systems a week, and gaining 5-10 systems a week.

Indeed I was thinking that INIV could start purging the clouds of Control systems right now, very likely raising the direct total so that we have a net Galactic gain, though this relies a lot on the excellent Alert and Invasion capacity of others to keep the inhabited systems in the meantime. I think our general plan will be something like this:

1. Invest a bit of time into upgrades, most importantly if equipping another Commander.
2. Stop easily-preventable attacks, such as taking SX-Z b14-1 to protect H Puppis.
3. Stage one larger-scale prevention or a recapture, such as clearing three at TS-Z to protect Neites or an eviction to retake Bagalya.
4. Try to clear at least one future attacker, such as JW-M c7-11 now to help insulate the recovering HIP 28150, with the goal of avoiding the Neites situation.
5. Just start reducing the Maelstrom size with a large-scale purge of empty systems further out.

As said in the report for this cycle, it would be quite onerous at the moment to clear many systems very close to M. Hadad just to stop Alerts at Muruidooges and Bi Dhorora; with deepest thanks to those who will be defending those systems later, I think it will be best if we do a bit of prevention then follow that with more general clearance.

Comms and trust is also vital with two when relying on the skill of the other to get a good manual drop/glide and regen your shield in time!

You need to visit the Prismatic princess and finish engineering your Shield boosters, V!