What cunning tricks AI is capable of?

[HyperKnight]

From my limited experience I saw AI send waves, send big waves and send some raid starships to my economy stations. What else it can do?

[Dismiss]

CPA/s and wormhole invasions are the two main ones not mentioned that one could consider "tricky". Hm, and wormhole borers. CPA is when you see ships come at you from all directions. Wormhole invasions and wormhole borers are mechanics where the ai forms new wormhole links between planets.

Most of the ai "trickery" though, is from hunter fleet--Which is what you most like were referring to as raid starships showing up at your econ planets. Also border aggression (smaller waves without any warning). Also reconquest waves (where it retakes a planet).

So there were a few more after all ;D

[Nanostrike]

At 5 or 6, you won't see it too often, but at Difficulty 7, you'll see some shennanigans.

Against me, at least in the early game, they particularly like to cheese with Warden Eyes and Alarm Posts. The ones where "If your fleet strength > 0.5x of the AIs, it spawns/calls reinforcements"

Just using random numbers for an example here:

The AI will have 40 strength. So I go in with a 16 strength secondary fleet to snipe it.

But as soon as I get in the system, the AI immediately retreats JUST enough of their units to get it's strength down to 30 and trigger the Alarm Post/activate the Eye.

Reinforcements for the AI flood in and the Warden Fleet pops in to cut off your retreat.

At the same time, the AI will call in a normal Wave on one of your planets and the Hunter Fleet will immediately rush your command center on your most vulnerable planet.

In a minute or two they've routed your surgical strike on their system and are now pushing back on 3 fronts at once with sizeable forces.

[The Grand Mugwump]

There isn't really one thing the AI does that is particularly cunning. What really stands out is when an unlucky (for you) combination happens. I always love it when I see an exostrike coming and it pauses at 99% with "waiting for wormhole invasion" in its description.

[Nanostrike]

Most of it is very, very subtle. And often situational. But it's definitely there.

I've had them tractor my ships and specifically drag them into a system with an Alarm Post, Raid Engine, or Dire Guardian Eye.

The Hunter and Warden Fleets do a lot of the "Trickery" The Warden is very good at turning a certain victory into a disastrous rout when it jumps in.

And the Hunter Fleet can turn that "My turrets can handle it, no need to pay attention" wave into an "Oh my god, where did they get that many ships from!? They just nuked two systems and are attacking my homeworld!" situation.

They also love to snipe exposed flagships to trigger a counterattack, stash their hunter/Warden fleets just out of your Scouting range, and holding their waves until something leaves you vulnerable.

I've lost count of how many times the AI has waited for a Dark Spire fleet to tie up one flank of my empire so it can launch a huge wave + Hunter Fleet attack on the opposite flank.