Yeah, well to explain a little deeper, I ran into this dude online. Sure seemed like a pro smurfing. Uses the same orange colors as JohnJames uses, plays vasari, goes straight for carrier spam as soon as he possibly can, and goes straight for your homeworld, taking 'roids along the way (but ignoring planets).
Pulls off some irritating moves that don't seem possible. I knew he was coming, so fortified an asteroid to slow him down - 3 turrets and 2 repair bays. He took his space whale, parked it directly in front of my turrets, totally ignored them, and bombed the 'roid down to nothing, while the turrets poured fire into his capship the entire time. After bombing the 'roid down to nothing, he took it, then attacked all the infrastructure and destroyed it. All he had accompanying the whale was 3 assailants.
Meanwhile, I was waiting for him 1 jump away on an ice planet, which I ALSO fortified with 3 turrets and 2 repair bays, and my own space whale sitting right next to it all on hold position. I was mildly surprised that he got out of the 'roid alive, seeing as how he completely ignored 3 turrets supported by 2 repair bays attacking his capship the entire time, but it was all good, because I figured he'd be easy prey once he met me at the ice planet. So he comes in with his 3 assailants and beat-up capship and proceeds to waltz right into my turrets and attack my space whale. We both hit each other with the nano-disassemblers, yadda yadda, his cap was already in the red when it came in, I had repair PLUS turrets, I thought he was going down! NOPE. My cap died, his cap was smoking and venting like crazy but still alive. He then proceeded to take the planet, and my jaw just dropped.
I mean, how was that possible? Sure, his capship was level 4, but mine was level 3, and totally fresh without a scratch on it. The dude went through a total of 6 turrets supported by 4 repair bays and 1 capship, never stopping to repair. There was no micro or tactics, just a seemingly "dumb" AI sort of mentality - charge right into turrets blazing away without a care in the world. But I suppose he won, ha ha, because after I lost the clash at the ice planet, I just laughed out loud while shaking my head, and hit "resign."
It's the one weird thing about this game: sometimes it seems you just lose by "magic" and you can't quite figure out why. When I lose at other games, I always know why. But half my losses with this game just leave me scratching my head.
Weirdly enough, on the replay, when he made it to the ice planet, it was MY ship that won (just as I thought it would all along), not his, and it wasn't even close. In other words, my repair bays and turrets worked great, plus the fact that my ship was totally fresh and his was more than half dead. But the replay was wrong, because in real life it was my capship that lost.
I'd love to see this explained by someone, LOL. Good luck.
