Peaceful Lowlands Strats?

[halucid]

So, I've only got a few dozen hours which has mostly been on this map but I just can't seem to figure out what to do. If I go for an aggressive start, I get annihilated by a colony pulling before I can get my walls up, as my base is always surrounded by zombies in a large meadow with no chokepoints. The only time I've come close yet is because I had one good spawn in a huge meadow full of iron, stone and oil, surrounded by trees and water. Only two entrances in.

I was able to field a force of seventy soldiers (Mostly vets from killing colonies) and a few dozen snipers. Massive sets of just walls with mixed turrets. I sprinkled in a ♥♥♥♥ton of razor wire. Three Hordes went down. Was just starting to expand and get some Thanatos up. Didn't expect so many of the leaping zombies on the final wave and my expo went down a few seconds too early, which ♥♥♥♥ed me as it had the Shock Towers to take out the side of two hordes. It seemed if I had built... twenty? thirty? more walls I would've won and finally unlocked the snow map. Only one hoard survived but my base was so dense it went down in three seconds.

Do you just scout and restart if you get a bad map or is there a way to be more aggressive early with an open base? Generally speaking even if I patrol with my units, it only works for so long before one or two zombies makes it through to a home. So I'd really appreciate any advice!

[Klingenmeister]

On how many days are you playing? You can get 3000-7000 citizens on the second map. Most likely you didnt have enough economy.

Your core timestamps should be: Soldier camp at day 5, mech building at day 35-40

[halucid]

My bad, 120 days.

Wow, yeah I must be not getting my economy up quick enough or something, I usually just break 1200 citizens as the last day rolls around. I don't get mechs till around day 80 and I'm not pumping out basic units till day 15. Thanks for the advice! I'll try to rethink my build order priority.

[Celebrim]

Be patient and expand around the Doom Towns if you can. Get as many houses up as you can. With the broad spaces, you should be able to get a full 24x24 of stone houses with a market/bank core. I'm finding it easier so far than the first map if you initially tip toe around the doom towns and don't trigger them. I basically have enough to beat the final wave now (80% difficulty, 120 day map) on day 63, so from here on out I guess I'm mostly going for a high pop. score.

[halucid]

How early should one be clearing the colonies? I've tried using between 5-15 soldiers now and it seems really hit or miss.

[Celebrim]

I never use soldiers, but generally 12-15 snipers can clear, though I usually have more like 10 archers and 10 snipers. However, the older the doom town the worse it seems to be. Some of the last ones to get cleared may require like 12 snipers and 5-6 titans. I imagine 20-30 snipers could do it fairly handily, though you might need more if you are playing Brutal (I haven't tried Brutal yet).