How did you WIN ?

[Ghost]

So far me and my friends haven't been able to win a single game. Not even on easy mode. But I'm sure some of you managed it, so what's the trick ? do a lot of map rotations untill you get the perfect one ? how many colonists should you aim for ? 1000 ? more ? less ? and how do you survive the last wave ?

[Tynendir]

Expand, expand and expand. Always expand. DId I mention you need to expand?
Early game you should focus on unit production (build a soldier center) so you can clear the area of infected.
Wave 1 can be cleared with soldiers only. Don't build towers they are a waste of ressources, only walls.
By wave 2 you should aim to have ballistaes behind every single layers of defense.
End game you should have executors everywhere (don't build shocking towers they get destroyed by spitters) and at least 4 layers of defenses in every direction. You should also have cleared the map.

Also many people believe that the game is easier at 120% difficulty (120 days and High pop of zombies).

Good luck.

[HeathenSW]

I aim to build a wood workshop till day 15, stone one till day 25, foundry till day 40-50 and start pumping titans from that. Rangers are almost useless in mid/end game, but a mass of them. 20-40 to be exact, can carry you till titan production. Soldiers are useless in endgame as well and snipers are needed to be hard microed to be efficient. Though in theory they are very efficient, I tried it only once. Someone managed to get ~350-400 of them and didn't need titans for the last wave at all.
Also at start you should scout a bit (22 hours or so), so that you know where chokepoints are and what exactly the map are you getting. Then set your rangers and soldier on patrol the closest chokepoints, so that no zed could get through to your buildings.
Also use towers. Two of them on every chokepoint. They will make your life a lot easier.
Also keep in mind that you should place towers at least 4 spots from the point where zeds will gather. Like if you use double walls, towers should be two tiles from the wall. That way you will not be as easily broken by spitters - they have a range of 4 if I'm correct. Or 5 at max, but you towers still will be able to kill them before they would spit.
Also make double walls. Then an empty/trapped spot and another double wall. That will buy you a lot of time on waves.
Also set population on brutal and days to survive on 120. These 20 days make it a lot easier as well. Some of the other players somehow manage to get ~5-6k of colonists. I personally always manage to get 2.5k.

[Tynendir]

I get a wood workshop way earlier than you HeathenSw. By day 10 usually. I pretty much get it once I cannot expand as efficiently in the early game so i can upgrade my houses.

[HeathenSW]

Originally posted by Tynendir:

I get a wood workshop way earlier than you HeathenSw. By day 10 usually. I pretty much get it once I cannot expand as efficiently in the early game so i can upgrade my houses.

Yeah, I get it when I feel the same. Although the earliest that I ever had it is day 11, I think. But the day 15 is the redline when it should be built. If it's day 25, well you are kinda late and it would be difficult to progress, though not impossible.

[Ghost]

Do the hordes that come in intervalls pull other zombies that are still on the map with them ? (snowball effect)

[Tynendir]

They pull some in yeah because of the noise. They might also start off the village of doom producing zombies if you have built too close but it's a rare occurence.

[HeathenSW]

Originally posted by OpFor Ghost:

Do the hordes that come in intervalls pull other zombies that are still on the map with them ? (snowball effect)

Didn't notice that. Only last one does exactly that. During usual waves the only thing that attracts them is the noise you make defending, I think.
And randomly there are some zeds that come midwave from somewhere out of the map, not sure of the mechanic here. But that happens pretty late in the match time and you'll probably have defences to deal with it by that time.

[HeathenSW]

Originally posted by Tynendir:

I get a wood workshop way earlier than you HeathenSw. By day 10 usually. I pretty much get it once I cannot expand as efficiently in the early game so i can upgrade my houses.

Heh, tested how early it can be rushed without much danger. Seems like on day 6-7 you can have it pretty safely, depending on the map. So that on day 8 you'd have farms already or whatever you want to research first.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1202039955

[Tynendir]

I usually get Soldier Center by day 3-4 (day 6 if I don't find any stone laying around) first. I think it's better to rush that rather than workshop.

[HeathenSW]

Yap, definitely it's better. I had that around that time as well right now - have a ton of stone literally by my doors.

[ಠ_ಠ Exil]

Originally posted by Tynendir:

I usually get Soldier Center by day 3-4 (day 6 if I don't find any stone laying around) first. I think it's better to rush that rather than workshop.

I usually rush Workshop for day 3-4 so I can get the farm fast and build more huts, then get the Soldier Center on day 8 (10 if I am unlucky with workers) and pump out 10 rangers. By day 16 (this on 130%) I have ballistas researched, at least 2 built to cover more dangerous flanks (if they exist, if not then no ballistas built) and about 14-15 rangers (the 4 originals and 10-11 fresh ones). I also keep enough money to build an immidiate Ballista for when the first wave pops.

This helped me get to day 115, I've yet to figure out what I'm doing wrong mid-game to loose the final wave.

[Justice]

Another thing that wasnt mentioned is definitly early scouting. not just for map knowledge, you can grab some real valuable goodies as well on the resource spawn. if you manage to find eg 2 stone goodies you can skip the quarry and directly build a soldiers center. gold and wood is very valuable early as well.
it basicly gives you a head start, you get the point i guess.

if you want to have some facts it is up to you. i tried pretty hard on my first win (130%) with 120 days then realized i wiped the map by around 75 and just build more and more towers/tians all over the map. the final wave didnt even break my outer defense line so it was rly overkill.

it is not that hard after all once you realized how mighty gold and population is, the drive to expand comes from itself then.

[Tynendir]

Originally posted by ಠ_ಠ Exil:

Originally posted by Tynendir:

I usually get Soldier Center by day 3-4 (day 6 if I don't find any stone laying around) first. I think it's better to rush that rather than workshop.

I usually rush Workshop for day 3-4 so I can get the farm fast and build more huts, then get the Soldier Center on day 8 (10 if I am unlucky with workers) and pump out 10 rangers. By day 16 (this on 130%) I have ballistas researched, at least 2 built to cover more dangerous flanks (if they exist, if not then no ballistas built) and about 14-15 rangers (the 4 originals and 10-11 fresh ones). I also keep enough money to build an immidiate Ballista for when the first wave pops.

This helped me get to day 115, I've yet to figure out what I'm doing wrong mid-game to loose the final wave.

Try building the soldier center first it really helps! With more rangers and earlier rangers you can start clearing out new areas of zeds which means more space, more food and more energy. That means you can delay your research a bit and be more confortable when the first wave comes because you have more troops.

[ಠ_ಠ Exil]

Originally posted by Tynendir:

Originally posted by ಠ_ಠ Exil:

I usually rush Workshop for day 3-4 so I can get the farm fast and build more huts, then get the Soldier Center on day 8 (10 if I am unlucky with workers) and pump out 10 rangers. By day 16 (this on 130%) I have ballistas researched, at least 2 built to cover more dangerous flanks (if they exist, if not then no ballistas built) and about 14-15 rangers (the 4 originals and 10-11 fresh ones). I also keep enough money to build an immidiate Ballista for when the first wave pops.

This helped me get to day 115, I've yet to figure out what I'm doing wrong mid-game to loose the final wave.

Try building the soldier center first it really helps! With more rangers and earlier rangers you can start clearing out new areas of zeds which means more space, more food and more energy. That means you can delay your research a bit and be more confortable when the first wave comes because you have more troops.

The problem isn't really the first wave, its the 5th or 6th wave. No matter how much I beef up my defenses there is always that 1 area where they manage to break through if they come from that direction.

[shachar2like]

without getting into specifics your job is to create secure areas which means mostly using walls and defenses.
As attack increases so should your defenses & technology (more specific going from wooden walls to stone walls)
This would require expansion into desired territories while cleaning & securing them.

And that is basically it.