Volcano

[Phin Dorsal]

I can't get by the volcano level. It looks like I'm making progress and then boom they push back and I'm dead before I can recover. Too many times trying and no strategy I use seems to make a difference.

[Wee Free Studio]

Hi Phin! Good to hear you made it there :)

Here's a couple of tips:

• Blocking them off using the "leftover" towers on the beach is of course a good idea.
  
• If you block the proper tiles, they won't be able to build their power plant on the beach. However, that does make the initial assault even heavier because they'll spend the power on offense instead. Consider letting them build it, because it is easy to destroy.
  
• Try to hold them off until their overcharged power plants explode. Then you'll be on much more even footing.
  
• Don't leave them an opening; with so much power at their disposal they'll be right up against your power plants in no time. On your turn, keep an eye on which power lines are about to be destroyed, and build new obstacles behind or on top of them.
  
• Dropping an extra power plant early on (after you've blocked off the path to your power plants) helps a lot. If you can get them down to two power plants, and you have three, you can start to push back.

That mission is pretty difficult - so don't be ashamed to drop the difficulty down to "easy". You can turn it back up for the next mission, and you can always go back and redo it on normal (or hard!) if you want the achievement.

[Phin Dorsal]

I have yet to find a way to stop the building of the first plant on the beach. I don't have anywhere near enough energy to get there. Holding them off until their plants explode isn't a problem, but they bounce back way too quick. I just tried easy and they actually rushed me even faster than on normal. I lost a plant on easy way sooner than on normal.

[Wee Free Studio]

Make sure you build a substation on the path to the shore, to keep the power costs down. Try building on on your third or fourth turn - you should have plenty of power to block them off completely, using the existing towers and bits of power line.

[Wee Free Studio]

If you're still stuck, try going for something like this: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/134717/Powargrid/volcano.jpg

[BarxBaron]

Dont try to block the beach power plant.

I beat this mission through trial and error with substation placement. The energy savings are necessary.

Also play defensively,,,,,take note what towers are overhcharged and will fire at your turns end. Be prepared to not let a hole open. I beat this mission via attritiona nd ensuring they did not get past halfway of the sand area. Kill all forward nme substations and BLOCK off their attempts to reconnect their forward guns.

[Fuddleclutch]

Hi Phin Dorsal, I just tested this mission on easy difficulty. Seems the difficulty setting is working properly (the AI gets a maximum of 40 power per turn from each power plant). So the faster rush on easy was probably bad luck; easy should really be easier :).

And BarxBaron is right that the better strategy is actually to not block the power plant on the beach (it is possible though). Building that power plant costs the AI a lot of power and really slows down its initial rush.

One of the key concepts in this mission is that you can use territory as a resource. Giving ground slowly costs you much less power that you opponent uses to claim it. That allows you to either build more power plants or to push the attack on another front. That's why we've added the achievement 'line in the sand', which you get if you don't let Chab pass the third row of beach tiles. That makes the mission quite a bit more difficult.

(I'm one of the devs for Powargrid by the way, in case that wasn't clear from my comment :)

[Phin Dorsal]

It worked with the map you laid out. I'm not sure why I wasn't getting to the beach in time before. I guess I was setting up a a defense too soon. Thanks for the help. In the swamp now and worried about the green blob.

[Wee Free Studio]

That's another tough mission, against another very aggressive opponent - and then it's on to the grand finale! Good luck!

[Chadworthy]

"Normal" mode shouldn't be this hard...
Without an 'undo' button and the unskippable animation every time you retry I can see why the couple youtubers doing lets plays of this game stop uploading before this stage.