Strategies

[VoxDei]

I've had a few games and played a few people who clearly hadn't played enough to know what works. I'm also coming to the conclusion that there's a "best" route at the moment, though I'm toying with a second one. So anyway, a few suggestions (for v0.0.3869, this will change as the game develops) to help others improve...

General

1. Learn to target missiles/railguns. Practice in hotseat. If you can't hit the other guy, you're going to lose.

2. Build defences and keep your stuff near them. Even if the other guy can't see you, stray railgun shots *hurt*.

3. Remember to keep enough power in reserve to power your defences (100 per defence that needs to activate, though you won't be able to keep enough for all of them). It's likely to be better not to fire than to fire everything and leave yourself open. This is *definitely* the case if railgun shots have to pass more than one planet (because you'll miss) and/or everything you can see to hit with a missile or laser is defended.

4. Remember to build enough mines and power plants to let you build what you want and power what you want. You don't need a million mines like some people build (I usually run with eight or so, which lets me build a couple of things per turn), but you need lots of power late on. You might be able to build more mines early and that will let you build more late, but you're giving the other guy a free hand early if you do.

5. The easiest way to target railguns and missiles (especially when not right next door) is with a trajectory that means they'll be more or less on the target planet's orbit when they get there (rather than crossing it and hoping the planet's in the right place). That way the planet can be anywhere along its orbit and you'll still hit it. This isn't the *fastest* trajectory, but who cares, it's not like your opponents will get more shots while your slugs are in transit.

Cloak and dagger

This is my current preferred strategy (because the first time it got used on me it was pretty devastating). Basically, if he can't see you he can't hit you (effectively) - research Magnetic Radiation Shielding on turn 1 and build a data security centre on turn 2. Ideally build a second one by about turn 4. That way, even someone who builds a telescope array pretty quickly can't see anything. Keep an eye on the intel screen to see who's building telescopes, if nobody is then you don't need to build too much more counter-intel. If someone is then try and keep ahead of them in counter-intel. They'll be able to carpet-bomb you with railguns, but not to do anything precision with missiles (and railguns are tricky to hit with at range). You're also likely to look less scary in matches with more than two players, because nobody will be able to see what you've got and people will tend to prefer to aim their missiles at things they can see (rather than just vaguely at your planet somewhere).

Anyway, After MRS I tend to go for Force Fields and try to avoid building more than one Kinetic Defence (because force fields are just better). This is optional, you could go straight on to the next step if you're happy with Kinetic Defence (and it does have the advantage of saving some time in research).

After that, research Advanced Signal Processing, Interplanetary Internet, Quantum Computing and then beeline Orbital Manufacturing. While you're doing that you should build (in this order) a couple of railguns, a telescope array (more than one if the other guy is hiding) and a missile. A laser is nice but optional when you get there - yes they're easy to target, but they only hit one building and they get blocked by planets (and the sun).

Slacken off your building enough that you've got enough materials to build a Solar Laser as soon as you've researched it (make sure you've built enough power to fire the thing and not leave yourself open), then pick the scariest spot on your opponent's planet and pound it. Ideally with missiles and so forth as well.

Railgun rush

Haven't tried this but it should work. Will have to give it a go at some point. Anyway, optionally research Magnetic Radiation Shielding and Shields as above and hide a bit (skip this if you want to go straight for dropping giant asteroids on people, but you risk the other guy beelining missiles and picking you off). After that, beeline to Mass Drivers. In the mean time, build at least four railguns and the power to use them properly (ie. you need 800 power per turn just for the railguns, then at least 100 for defence (preferably 200), and then building on top) - any time the enemy planet is close to you it should be saturated - you'll overwhelm his defences even if they are powered. He'll spend so much time cleaning up that he won't be able to build things to hit you back.

You don't need to see what's going on because you're not going to build anything that has a target smaller than a planet, so the ASP/Missiles/Lasers line is pointless. Once you get to Mass Drivers, drop rocks on people.

This tactic should be strong where the planetary alignment at the start is such that the enemy planet is coming to closest approach to you as your first couple of railguns come online. It's risky though - you probably won't kill anything on the first orbit (though you'll soften it up for next time) and you won't hit anything while he's on the opposite side of the sun (if you don't have an easy shot don't even bother, just keep the energy for your defences). By the time he comes around again you should have your four railguns up, you definitely want to pound him for at least three turns in a row on the second pass. Probably worth going up to six railguns for the third pass if you can get the power.

I shouldn't have to point out that this won't work if your aim is rubbish. Railguns require quite a lot of precision to fire (because you don't have to miss by very *much*), so if you're only hitting him with one or two shots out of four then learn to target better before you do this!

Anything else

Not sure anything else really works at the moment. My only loss using Cloak and Dagger was to someone who got to Orbital Manufacturing a turn before I did having built a ton of intelligence buildings in one go a couple of turns earlier (and then started toasting my weapons and power plants). We got disconnected before he finished me (no, not deliberately!), but I was definitely firefighting there. Beelining missiles sounds initially attractive (and they make targetting sooo much easier), but they're too expensive to fire to use as a primary weapon on their own - I find they're best coming in behind a railgun shot or two. Lasers I think are underpowered at the moment - by the time you get them you're better to just saturate with railguns/missiles, IMO.

Stuff to avoid
I've never bothered with Advanced Recycling, Strong AI or Arcologies. Though you could go with Strong AI over Quantum Computing (think they're identical?). Arcologies in particular seems pointless at present. If I wasn't on the Railgun Rush strategy I wouldn't bother with anything in the 4th Gen Nuclear Plants tree - it doesn't get you anything you need, though I do kind of want to try out Mass Drivers. ;-)

So anyway, that's my state of play at the moment. Hoping both to help others and to tell the devs what my main tactics are at the moment. :-)

[Jeo]

Very interesting! I think you've found some pretty good strategies there. I'll be keeping these in mind when expanding the game to accomodate for more variety.

[Wild]

I go for railgun saturation all the time. Getting intelligence just slows you down. I usually build a weapon on turn 2 or 3 and beeline for forcefields without building kinetics because they're just better. Once I have forcefields I precede to get nuclear powerplants and start building forcefields on every city and another tactic I have, build all your buildings in a circle (with your city a part of that city) with enough in the middle for a forcefield. It's very effective. Once you've mass drivers it's usually good not to reveal it until you're sure you can hit. I once went the whole game with 0 intelligence so my opponent destroyed all of his counter intelligence. It was very late game so got 2300 energy and a ton of materials and I researched Orbital Manufacturing, spammed 5 intel arrays and a solar laser, next turn I destroyed his most valuable city. Always try and surprise you're enemy! The most important part of this tactic is to get forcefields around EVERY building and city. Remember the circle tactic!

[Fishchisel]

In a 3 player FFA, we found that building lots of counter intelligence made you a target to the other two players, who feared you were building superweapons that they couldn't see.

[Mictlantecuhtli]

One thing I have noticed is that the people towards the center tend to start fighting earlier than the people near the outermost rings. I know when I'm near the center I try to build up railguns and defenses quickly because people ususually start fighting soon.

[lo_fabre]

I had the same observations regarding the targeting sistem.
I take few screenshots about it, but don't know how to post they here.

[NeutralDog]

Just finished a 4 player match, probably the most balanced game I have been in yet. After the first person was defeated, it was only a few more turns before a victor emerged and it was an exciting game throughout.

Video will be coming soon, I'll edit it to make it faster and do some narration to better illustrate the following points

1- After a few cities get taken out, research becomes way too slow to be practical. I had 3 cities get wiped quickly, and after that, I realized I would need shield defense, but needed 11 turns to get to it! Needless to say I died before I could research any new tech that would have availed my situation!

Maybe a cheap research building could be added to the game for exactly this kind of situation??

2- Missiles suck. Too expensive, too little damage, too easily blocked

3- My asteroid diversion was positioned so that throughout THE ENTIRE GAME, even if I rebuilt it, the outermost planet in the solar system (which was huge) was directly in front of its trajectory, making most shots almost impossible! Please consider fixing it so that the asteroid trajectory does not orbit directly alongside outside planets!

[katmos.pie]

There are two main strategies:
- either go for precise shots (laser and missiles) which have the advantage of destroying exactly what you want, with the disadvantage of requireing a lot of time and resources wasted on intelligence
- or you can go on area-attcks (railguns and asteroids), in wich you will carpet-bomb half the enemy planet at once, with the possibility of inacurate shots in outer space.
Anyway, always use lots of force fields to defend yourself. And try to get the superweapons as fast as possible, because only they can get past well-powered defences!

[Jeo]

Originally posted by NeutralDog:

3- My asteroid diversion was positioned so that throughout THE ENTIRE GAME, even if I rebuilt it, the outermost planet in the solar system (which was huge) was directly in front of its trajectory, making most shots almost impossible! Please consider fixing it so that the asteroid trajectory does not orbit directly alongside outside planets!

Huh, nice catch! It's not supposed to work like that, so we'll see what we can do for the next update.

[NeutralDog]

Yar I've got video footage of it, I've been meaning to add audio and upload it so maybe I'll do that tonight so you can see what I'm talking about. I actually named the neutral planet 'planet cockblock' after the 3rd time

[threecats]

During one of my hotseat matches Asteroid Diversion also orbited right next to the outermost planet. Luckily it was an enemy planet so that was a nice free cheap shot every turn.