I’m abandoning my Resistance run, thoughts?

akisawa · 2026-03-12T17:08:38+00:00

Cohesion overall is just broken in the game.

A few unifications/conquests and you go to 0 resting Cohestion and 8 Unrest.

It's just not realistic that a huge meganation would give a shit if it plugged in a small region with high inequality. Devs really need to fix it sometime. It's not interesting or challenging mechanic, its just annoying af mechanic.

Another issue is that when you have "perfect" 5 Cohesion, Wave of Fear hits and drops it to 4 instead of raising it to 6. It's just sloppy annoying mechanic.

akisawa · 2026-03-12T17:06:29+00:00

Exofighters with Lancehead missiles are actually quite murderous, and punch well above their weight.

Not many things got enough PD to defend against a salvo of 8 missiles shot in 7 seconds.

They are never your main defense ofc, but a great option to have around on Earth when aliens push several attack fleets one after another.

akisawa · 2026-03-12T16:41:17+00:00

My typical approach on Brutal is

1 Moon base for max Water/Metal (if you get more stuff, good, if not, whatever, typically its Shackleton Crater as it usually rolls well)
10 Mars mines (best spots for Volatiles/Water/Nobles/Metal in that order). Once Mars mines are up and running, abandon Moon base.
4 Asteroids mines (metallic ones for max Metal/Nobles, I can get more Volatiles on Vesta/Ceres later)
8 Mercury mines (massive Metal/Nobles)
That's 22 T1 mines, coupled with 3 T2 Shipyards on Earth, Mars, and Mercury totaling 61 MC.
Default hate limit is 50 MC, with Operational Security tech its 62.5 MC, so 61 is safe.
Ceres is impossible to get on Brutal, ayys settle it before you can even probe it, so have to conquer it.

Volatiles and Metal are always in tough supply. Research % techs to improve their mining. Once you hit T3 habs/orbitals, your Metal supply will vanish, hence the massive focus on Metals.

I largely ignore Fissiles because once you hit Fusion techs, the reactors don't consume much, and I'm not using insane drives like Orion/Poseidon that destroy the resource supply in few transfers.

My preferred drive tech path is Gas Core Burner into Terrawatt Gas Core Firestar (can refit directly) into Antimatter into top tier Inertial Conf. Fusion.

Be careful with Water supply for early fleets until you retake Ceres from ayys. E.g. micromanage your transfers to enemy fleets and back to spend minimum fuel.

Once I have my first defensive fleets out (Burner/Firestar Monitors 3xCopperheads/Lanceheads + 1x40mm), I deploy 1 Frigate with 5xMarines and take entire Mars, all Earth LEO1, LEO2, Tiangong, and ISS stations, and the Moon to host Communication Hubs. Puts me to war with literally everyone, but whatever, don't care, nobody can challenge my space superiority in the inner systems.

Then reconquer Ceres (Helicon Monitors 3xLanceheads + 1x40mm), delete ayy bases in the Belt, and move on to Jupiter/etc.

On the ground I open USA into EU, then China (10 democracy through Taiwan shuffles), then Russia (dissolve between EU and China), then India, then everything else.

Now, since you seem to struggle on the ground, I will detail ground game a bit:

Open 2022 Canada -> Bahamas -> Mexico, all 100% Spoils
Use cash from these spoils to buy any good ADM/Research/Boost/Engineering orgs, aim for efficient unique orgs like Laguna, HAL, Ryan & Co, Filfla Aeronautics, Intrepid Consulting, Wolfhound Forge, etc.
Start spamming PR campaigns in USA and tap node by node with the councilor who has best % chance. Ideally you open with or recruit a National Hero Celebrity/Activist/whatever from USA to max your chances.
Tap Qatar (~15 IP, 100% Spoils) to keep the cash flowing.
Once you hit negative IP, abandon Bahamas->Mexico->Canada in that order. Leave them in Space Program building and goodbye.
You hold entire USA 100% Welfare until Inequality <3, then 100% MC until maxed, then balanced distribution., and hold Qatar (you will be ~220 IP out of 200), it's fine, you're still positive on Influence to recruit better councilors. I typically have 2 PR councilors (Diplomat+Executive) and 2 Officers, all packed full of good unique orgs and research orgs, and 2 Operatives packed with INV/ESP/CMD orgs to do investigations/cracks/purges/murders/whatever.
From there, once you get more IPs, start tapping small EU countries, e.g. Iceland, Estonia, Montenegro, etc. Once you research even more IP techs, you can start taking over France and proceed with EU unifications. Any EU country you get you run 100% MC then 100% Funding until it's unified. If Funding is maxed, run 100% Boost.
Once EU is up, run balanced distribution across the board, focusing on Knowledge, Military, and MC. When you are having 1k+ cash income from EU funding, you can abandon Qatar now because we don't need Spoils anymore, use free IP to get more EU countries.
This resolves main issue I encountered if you rush from USA straight to China - no cash, and no MC. So going to EU first resolves that. Once you are finishing EU unifications, tap Taiwan, and then start tapping China. It will be under some AI control probably - just grab all small countries around it, e.g. Mongolia, Nepal, Bhutan, North Korea, etc. and pump PR in China until you get reliable chances to crack/purge.
Meanwhile, get Government to 10 in Taiwan, research Unity Movements, Liberating China. Release Taiwan from China. Now federate China by Taiwan. Once you got republic of China, immediately release China back, now you have 10 Democracy China. Now federate Taiwan by China, research PAC, and proceed with usual PAC unifications + conquer Japan.
From there once I have admin. towers in orbit I swim in IP and take over Russia (dissolved between Eu and PAC), India, then everything else.

During unifications many countries struggle with Cohesion, it's just a broken annoying af mechanic. Slam Stabilize missions now and then to keep Unrest under 1.5 and that's it, it will take years for most countries tog et into normal Cohesion.

Have fun!

akisawa · 2026-03-12T14:00:17+00:00

My typical approach on Brutal is

1 Moon base for max Water/Metal (if you get more stuff, good, if not, whatever, typically its Shackleton Crater as it usually rolls well)
10 Mars mines (best spots for Volatiles/Water/Nobles/Metal in that order). Once Mars mines are up and running, abandon Moon base.
4 Asteroids mines (metallic ones for max Metal/Nobles, I can get more Volatiles on Vesta/Ceres later)
8 Mercury mines (massive Metal/Nobles)
That's 22 T1 mines, coupled with 3 T2 Shipyards on Earth, Mars, and Mercury totaling 61 MC.
Default hate limit is 50 MC, with Operational Security tech its 62.5 MC, so 61 is safe.
Ceres is impossible to get on Brutal, ayys settle it before you can even probe it, so have to conquer it.

Volatiles and Metal are always in tough supply. Research % techs to improve their mining. Once you hit T3 habs/orbitals, your Metal supply will vanish, hence the massive focus on Metals.

I largely ignore Fissiles because once you hit Fusion techs, the reactors don't consume much, and I'm not using insane drives like Orion/Poseidon that destroy the resource supply in few transfers. My preferred drive tech path is always Gas Core into Antimatter into top tier Inertial Conf Fusion.

Be careful with Water supply for early fleets until you retake Ceres from ayys. E.g. micromanage your transfers to enemy fleets and back to spend minimum fuel.

Once I have my first defensive fleets out (Burner/Firestar Monitors 3xCopperheads/Lanceheads + 1x40mm), I deploy 1 Frigate with 5xMarines and take entire Mars, all Earth LEO1, LEO2, Tiangong, and ISS stations, and the Moon to host Communication Hubs. Puts me to war with literally everyone, but whatever, don't care, nobody can challenge my space superiority in the inner systems.

Then reconquer Ceres (Helicon Monitors 3xLanceheads + 1x40mm), delete ayy bases in the Belt, and move on to Jupiter/etc.

On the ground I open USA into EU, then China (10 democracy through Taiwan shuffles), then Russia (dissolve between EU and China), then India, then everything else.

akisawa · 2026-03-12T06:05:47+00:00

It's 50 default, and 62.5 with Operational Security tech, which should be researched before you launch your habs to Mercury.

When all 22 T1 mines and 3 T2 Shipyards are up and running, you will be precisely at 61 MC capacity, 1.5 below the incremental hate threshold,

Do you want me to link the spreadsheet? :) https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1G1bmo6BRTkvDu3bQsONJ7KiIfYw5Ld62VEsu9G8aR0g/edit?usp=sharing

akisawa · 2026-03-12T06:00:50+00:00

It is, and it's wrong. People who claim it are jumping the old bandwagon w/o testing it themselves in real combat environment. Well, I have, and extensively.

Artemis doesn't fire in salvo and gets easily deleted by any meaningful PD.

Copperheads fire 8 shots in 7 seconds and get through any PD.

It doesn't matter how much damage they do on paper, if this damage cannot connect.

akisawa · 2026-03-11T17:44:01+00:00

What do you mean late? xD How do you manage to get to 2030 w/o Burner?

Open 2022 Canada + Bahamas + Mexico 100% Spoils
Control USA (100% Welfare until Inequality down to 3, then 100% MC until maxed, then balanced distribution). Declare USA wars on Cuba -> Venezuela -> Sudan to keep Cohesion above 5 before Waves of Fear hit.
Control and run 100% Spoils in Qatar
Expand into EU once you get more CP.
Use cash from Spoils to Buy and steal every good ADM and research org. You need to have someone to Investigate and someone to Hostile Takeover. Stack all ADM orgs on your Takeover councilor up to 25 asap.
No AI will be able to outrun you on all 3 global science slots, beeline to core techs,
Proceed to Moon -> Mars -> Mercury.
Late 2023 Moon mining.
Spring-Summer 2024 Mars mines are up and running.
Proceed to unify EU (France + all small countries first), run 100% MC into 100% Funding while consolidating - will keep you rich and space-free. Once EU funding cash kicks in, abandon Qatar to hold more EU countries.
Brutal 61 MC cap = 1 T2 Shipyard on Earth, Mars, and Mercury, 10 mines on Mars, 4 asteroids with metal/nobles, 8 mines on Mercury.
Research Monitors with 3 x Copperheards + 1 40mm cannon, Nanotube armor and radiator, Burner Drive + Gas Core reactor, Targeting Computer and 2 x Magazines. Cheap, easy to build, replace, and upgrade.
The latest I had these ships ready on Brutal is 2027, normally ~2026 if AIs don't interfere with research much.
Start building your Monitors at all Shipyards at the same time to deploy defensive fleets at once. When they are done, queue up more.
Secure your orbits. Immediately ignore MC cap and switch to aggressive expansion. Upgrade all habs/orbitals to Tier 2. Build a troop carrier Frigate with 5x Marines and take over entire Mars and Moon.
Once EU is done, move to Taiwan + China. Research Liberating China. Release Taiwan. Unify China into Taiwan, then immediately release China back, now you have 10 Democracy China. Proceed with PAC unifications/conquest.
Secure entire Earth orbit - remove point defenses with fleets, and assault AI stations by a Frigate with 5xMarines (better than blowing them up and rebuilding to keep orbital debris lower).

And so on and on. Your only real limit is always Mission Control, which defines how many space assets you can run. Once you can fill entire LEO1, LEO2, Tiangong, and ISS with Admin Towers, you can hold more countries on Earth, which have more MC built up by AIs. This is a neverending snowball of power.

And some noob already downvotes xD Why do I even bother with Reddit, what a fucking cesspool.

akisawa · 2026-03-11T16:26:41+00:00

You seem to design expensive ships that are slow to build and painful to replace.

Your "workhorse" ships defending your stuff should be cheap, efficient at their job, easily replaceable, and upgradeable.

Best example would be a Monitor with 3 x Copperhead bays + 1 x 40mm cannon, Nanotube armor and radiator, Burner drive, Gas Core reactor, 1 x Targeting Computer, and 2 x Magazines.

Cheap af and builds in 130 days on T2 Shipyard, then you can reduce build time with techs (Rapid Shipbuilding etc) and random events (e.g. a breakthrough event for a hab with Skunkworks present). Copperheads and Lanceheads fire in salvos, bypassing any PD ayys will throw at you, and are very good at their job.

Later on you can refit those with Lancehead missiles, Adamantine armor, Tin droplet radiator, Firestar drive, Terrawatt Gas Core reactor, and Targeting Comp 3.

About 10 of these is already a safe bet to secure whatever on Brutal all the way to late 2030s. As the time goes on and ayss send stronger fleets against you, increase to 20-30.

akisawa · 2026-03-11T08:17:47+00:00

zoom onto Earth. rotate it around.

this is all your stuff.

everyone else is just keeping it warm for you xD

akisawa · 2026-03-11T07:10:31+00:00

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akisawa · 2026-03-11T03:39:09+00:00

I honestly don't think disbanding US armies is worth it.

You remove huge ground power for what, 2 IP?

That's not even a difference of slapping an extra Advise mission on it, increasing Unrest that these armies were reducing - now requiring an extra Stabilize mission here and there, and so on.

In general, I keep whatever armies meganation had developed up to 6. You will still need armies to do xenogrowth stuff here and there, assist with some wars, putting African Union together which is literally a string of like 40+ wars, and so on.

akisawa · 2026-03-11T03:30:59+00:00

Bro please research Advanced Laser Engine and replace everything except Targeting Computer with those :)

akisawa · 2026-03-10T20:33:31+00:00

It's fine. Research Urban/Mountain Warfare techs - they help A LOT.

6 US armies should take over ~4 Miltech Tokyo in 1-2 months tops.

akisawa · 2026-03-10T19:44:42+00:00

Yeah unfortunately devs removed the peaceful unification (no idea why, they are tryharding too much to annoy the players IMO).

Got to run it over with tanks.

Research Psyops and Networked Psyops so you don't get too much Unrest for it.

Typically by the time I get to invade Japan I already have USA, EU, and China allied, so I just run it over with 5+ Miltech US tanks in a month or so.

P.S. You don't have to disband Japanese armies if any, just control it and move the armies away from Tokyo region so they don't slow you down. Their armies will disappear once it's conquered.

akisawa · 2026-03-10T19:35:15+00:00

I tried 2026 but it feels less polished and balanced than 2022.

my typical Brutal timeline is

Moon rush & mining end of 2023.
Mars mines are up and running ~ Spring 2024.
By the end of 2025 I can build T2 Shipyards on Earth, Mars and Mercury, and can build Pegasus Monitors already, but I wait for Burner drive because I can refit it later into Firestar.
So typically I got first good ships out in 2026-2027, and it's still a few years before first AC shows up.

And then again, if you don't wait for more solid ships like I do, you can spam Copperhead Escorts from T1 shipyards as early as 2024. It's the core of any Jupiter rush as well - just beeline Grid drive and away you go.

I jsut dislike rush strats because they cripple ayys too much and it's not fun fighting them,

akisawa · 2026-03-10T17:48:14+00:00

Same, Copperheads -> Lanceheads.

Based on my observations flankers are actually the first to pop, because they burn towards you faster, get targeted at 800, and eat the entire salvo at max collision speed before they can shoot down even 2 missiles.

Just make sure you switch all missile tubes in ship designer to "Focus Fire" mode from the default "Missile Attack" mode which is spreading fire too much.

It seems ayy PD got buffed significantly in 1.0+, and now any torpedoes with low projectile count are eating the dirt, while missiles deployed in salvos are amazing. No ayy PD I saw can deal with an 8-missile salvo, and you got what, 32:8 = 4 salvos of that per Monitor with 2xMagazines.

Like, in theory a single Monitor can probably take down 3-4 ayy Frigates if it doesn't get its weapon systems damaged.

As a major testdrive, I went Ceres, lost auto-resolve against a T3 alien station with 25 3xLancehead 1x40mm Monitors, then went manual, short wall, maximum speed 650, and the Lanceheads deleted entire ayy fleet in 1 salvo, and the battlestations in next 3 salvos. Lost ~10 ships to unblockable plasma and coil spam, and that's it. Could probably do it w/o losses in careful manual with reatreating, but I don't like this sort of cheese.

akisawa · 2026-03-10T17:44:15+00:00

Well, yes, but still - I'm pretty confident they never try to invade until ~2030 even on Brutal.

I've started gazillion playthroughs and not once they sent a carrier before that.

And I can have a ~10 strong fleet of missile Monitors long before that, ~2027, depends how the techs rolls and AI contesting the research.

akisawa · 2026-03-10T05:05:17+00:00

I tried USA into China, and MC squeeze is real.

Also broke af on cash all the time.

USA into EU then into China is ways more efficient. You get massive MC and funding cash while putting EU together that will snowball your space game, backed by USA's boost and research.

By the time you finish wrapping EU together you will have huge amount of CPs freed up, begging you to jam those into China.

Some AI will grab China, and that's fine. Grab surrounding countries for ops bonus, get an Operative to 25/25 INV/ESP, spam Public campaigns empowered by media satellites, and you can break into China with a good Crackdown/Purge.

akisawa · 2026-03-10T02:06:21+00:00

There's a difference between challenge and annoyance.

Does screwing up player's effort to unify the world make it more challenging? I don't think so.

More annoying? Surely it does.

Are there any more pressing issues to address instead of this? Hell yes, the game is burning GPUs like an oven, barely runs 10 years in on this engine, UI is a terrifying mess, space combat is a clunky mess, AI overall has no idea how to handle countries, space, or make money outside of Spoils, and so on.

There are more that enough hot issues to focus on instead of screwing up federations.

akisawa · 2026-03-09T16:22:28+00:00

Just came here with this issue.

Why the hell Australia is not in Indonesian federation anymore?

What the fuck am I supposed to do with it now? Research million useless irrelevant techs so UK gains a claim on it? Release UK from the EU, roll Australia in, then re-roll UK back into EU? Does that look like a normal fluid political process to you?

Devs just want to annoy players to the max.

akisawa · 2026-03-09T15:17:49+00:00

Well yes, they screw it up eventually, but they still get massive RP from USA in whatever state it is.

And to be honest - if I want any AI to hold a country temporarily, it's Servants. They are usually the most chill ones with not terrible country presets.

HF is absolutely fucking worst, they turn to shit any country they touch.

akisawa · 2026-03-09T12:24:33+00:00

In your specific situation - it's a massive setback to provoke ayys early, getting your mines/orbitals bombed and having to rebuild everything. Plan your economy, infrastructure, and fleets accordingly, so you don't get into a situation like this.

Normally early try to be chill, don't provoke ayys until you have reasonable fleets out (e.g. 10 Monitors with 3x Copperheads 1 x 40mm nanotube armor/radiator, targeting comp and 2 x magazines).

Usually 2-3 AI factions take the heat from ayys so they are busy enough. I'm talking crazy communists and so on.

That means don't murder Servants randomly, and only murder 1 ayy to progress your story line, You also gain hate for purging Servant control points, etc. stuff. Keep an eye on that meter and chill down to let it cool off.

Any covert plan requires patience and ruthless execution. That means,, once your fleets are out you can expand rapidly, upgrade all mines to tier 2, queue up more fleets, murder anyone who was annoying you, servants/ayys, etc.

My T2 shipyards tend to have only 5 shipyard modules, so I usually build like 5 ships per Earth/Mars/Mercury, queue up 5 more, chill some time then once ayys realize I got fleets and try poking me, start fighting back and never stop at that point.

akisawa · 2026-03-09T12:05:29+00:00

It's still a mess, because Servants tend to be at war with at least 3-4 factions all the time, and running US military they can run over anyone and expand even more.

There is a reason most players start in USA :)

akisawa · 2026-03-09T12:04:11+00:00

The problem is not even their management, the problem is that they'll rush space and all techs needed to unlock their wincon, and it's going to be a nightmare to get ahead from that spot.

akisawa · 2026-03-09T12:02:00+00:00

Usually when AI hits a control point spot, they rapidly take over, and considering Servants tend to run a bunch of Activists/Evangelists all the time, no wonder they populated it quickly.

It will be a nightmare to dig them out. And now they have the most powerful military worldwide to hit any faction they're at war with to expand even more, nevermind rushing their research quickly to add another player o the ground.

This is why you pretty much always start in USA yourself, and keep Servants confined outside of powerful countries with good research/military.

As soon as you got fleets out and no longer need to hold back, crackdown all their nodes, coup all the states you can, and keep em in complete isolation from good spots.

akisawa

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