The 'slow' first 60-70 turns

[Valks]

Maybe I'm doing something wrong but I've tried three games as Fallen Soldier, first one was the learning one, second I was surrounded by Zephon and Chieftess at the start (5 hex away) so I reset. Third game I carved out the resources and beat back the Chieftess and the Ac..(aliens) about 50-60 turns in still fighting to reach Engineers and expand a single city.

Somehow the Chieftess on a peninsula jumped over the ocean and founded a city across by turn 30, Baron did the same and I can't figure out how.

Moreover I apparently can't expand or take/destroy the neighbouring cities as my forces are too weak and do too little damage. Militants, Commanders, Chy... helicopter I got and a single missle unit I'm just grinding against the cities with little impact.

Am I supposed to 'wait' until better Tier 3/4 tech to be able to take or destroy cities?

[Mania]

You can kill cities as long as you have enough men or good enough units to kill it. Personally, 2 Commanders, 3 Militants, and 2 Missile Teams were enough to kill a city. It did take a while, and you shouldn't expect a quick kill even with high tech units.
For example, my midgame armies of Crusaders, Valkyries, and artillery tanks still took a while to kill cities. But as long as you have the troops to tank the shots, you can whittle the city down and cripple their economy.

Tier 3-4 tech units won't help much, but a lot of numbers will.

I found that lots of the NPC factions (ZEPHON, Anchorite, and Chieftess, not the AI factions you can set in the lobby that use the same pool of units the player does) have very spread out cities. I'm not sure, but those factions start with randomly placed cities. I'll have to confirm that. As for the non-NPC factions, the AI probably ran out of space and colonized whatever area they could.

[Looks like Duke]

Originally posted by Mania:

I found that lots of the NPC factions (ZEPHON, Anchorite, and Chieftess, not the AI factions you can set in the lobby that use the same pool of units the player does) have very spread out cities. I'm not sure, but those factions start with randomly placed cities. I'll have to confirm that.

If you start game as an observer, while the game itself will not work (for me at least, I could not advance turns), you can see the map. Those NPC factions indeed can have more than one city, randomly spread over the map.