Red Conquest Strategy thread

*cry* please, stockpilling (i avoid calling it cheating ;D) adds some hidden elements to the game which you always have to care about... You may never know when the enemy army might suddenly have two more monitors or killed Battleships are instantly restocking... Please please don't prevent this! Maybe add a -5 to the resource counter for every unit which is paused and would need less than 5 seconds to finish, not including scouts, harvesters and cruisers (no1 would stack harvesters, and cruisers and scouts are too weak to be effectively stockpilled and used in battle)

But PLEASE dont totally remove the ability to order more units than the cap allows!

 

Good idea!

Starting to make an example strategy post for blue now... it shows how to excessively use monitors and how to build a good formation... it uses the Challenge level "Red Enclave" which is very easy, but it should be enough for presentation purposes.

 

Challenge Level "Red Enclave": Strategy example for Blue

This is an example of how to use blue's units effectively. You like to play a bit more strategically? Want to be able to defend yourself from masses of red units and still fight back??? Read this.

1. You will need SPEED. If you don't make decisions quickly enough, the AI will run you over. I'm playing at 1.5 gamespeed. If you can't deal with that speed (or not even with 1.0... it's not a shame when speed 1.0 is too fast for you at the beginning... take your time) then turn down the gamespeed in the options menu. This won't affect multiplayer matches (so the improvised skirmish thing by doing Multiplayer vs. AIs only will always be 1.0... but this will be fixed with the extra skirmish mode coming with the next update), but campaign and challenge can be slowed down. Use the time you gain by doing this to learn how to build up your formation. BUT! Don't get used to it. If you feel like you can speed up a bit, do so. Playing at 1.5 speed gives you an advantage at multiplayer matches (since multiplayer is always 1.0, everything will be slow-motion-like to you, so you have more time to make your decisions which makes you more of a threat )

2. When a battle against the enemy units has begun, USE THE MULTIMOVE SCREEN!!! Since you are learning how to use a small amount of units effectively, you won't have to manage 20 Battleships. So multimove shouldn't be hard to use. Anyway, you will only need to move your units a bit to keep your formation, which is all you want.

3. When not in battle, move via Ranged Select + Move Action. This keeps your units in the same formation and send them from place to place simultaneously. No enemies trying to break into your formation, so no finely tuned movement needed to keep the formation.

4. As said before in 2. and 3., DONT LET THE ENEMY BREAK YOUR FORMATION! Without the other units as a cover, your MVs are toast.

5. Use asteroid fields to your advantage. Slower movements result in less harm for the formation, so you can concentrate on overall movement instead of formation-maintenance.

6. Always try to keep (better: always keep) your front line units (in this case the Destroyers) filled with Fighter Escorts. The Escorts will add not only attack bonus, but also defense bonus to the front line, which is essential! Imagine your front had no Escorts. It would be crushed into pieces in no time!

Ok... too much text Well, let's start with the main part of this example: The example

Beginning:
Always look at the map overview quickly. If you know where your opponent is, you have an advantage. Then, tap to start the game.

First thing to do:
Pop out two harvesters. two harvesters and the base is totally enough for blue, since blue units are pretty cheap.


Then, order a Foundry quickly. The Foundry will take a lot of time to be built, so arrange your harvesters to max out your income.


Order your Base to autobuild the maximum amount of fighter escorts, just in case the base gets attacked.
Order two Destroyers for basic defense (you will need them pretty soon) and one Carrier (the carrier either in base or foundry... this time I did it in foundry, but doing it in base might offer a bit extra time for your foundry sometimes )


Order the Carrier to build two Monitors (the main units for this strategy) and autobuild maximum Fighter Escorts.


Also, let the Foundry build two MVs. these two MVs are the MOST IMPORTANT units you need to keep up your defense. If you are attacked early and think you can't manage to defend with the Destroyers, hide the MVs behind the base (which should have maximum Escorts by now).

(I didn't feel threatened, so I didn't hide my MVs )

Order a third Destroyer, then send the Destroyers to build a line in the asteroid field, place the MVs behind them and the Monitors behind the MVs. Place them together as tightly as possible, so the Monitors can reach past the Destroyers as far as possible. Send the middle Destroyer A TINY BIT to the front, to build a thick arrow-like formation.

(doesn't show the middle Destroyer moved to the front a bit, but it's not so important... It's pressed back into your formation by the enemies as soon as they attack, but it also slows the enemies down a bit. So, this minor detail can bring the advantage to your side )

Place the whole formation in the asteroid field.

This all should have happened in about one or two minutes... if the AI hasn't attacked you yet, it will do so by now. Lots of carriers will crush into your Destroyers and will be killed by the Monitors and Destroyers. When the surviving Carriers try to run away, move your formation forward A BIT!!!, but don't go out of the asteroid field yet.

Keep your Destroyers filled with Fighter Escorts! The Carrier should be following your formation! If the carrier is empty, send the MVs' Escorts to the Destroyers and fill the MVs with the Monitors' Escorts. The Destroyers need to be filled with Escorts because Escorts have also defensive value.

Move the Monitors to the sides of the MVs, so the MVs are covered from the front and the side. Start spawning 4 more Monitors with your Carrier and close the "Circle" around the MVs. The enemy will continue throwing Carriers at you, but the more monitory you add, the faster the Red Carriers die!

Slowly continue sending your formation to the front, maybe even reaching out of the asteroid field A BIT.

As you see in the picture, you should spawn some Cruisers (5 of them, so your popcap is maxed) now.

Send these cruisers through the asteroid field (in the asteroid field the enemy won't attack them, since they are too far away) to the other side of the level and then "jump out" of the asteroid field to crush some of their harvesters.


Then, move the Cruisers to the north side of the enemy army (your formation is on the south side). Then send the Cruisers down into the enemy army.


They will stand no chance in this battle, but the enemy will be pushed down into your wall of Destroyers... when the base is sniped to death by Monitors, you can send your formation out of the asteroid field completely to toast the Foundries that survived...


This may not be the best way to finish this challenge level, but in my opinion it shows a good way of organizing your troops as Blue instead of just massing standard combat units.

 

I'm thinking about posting an In-Depth Interface Tutorial for this game, because many people seem to have problems with the interface... But it will take me hours, if not days, because I want to show examples and make screenshots for everything...

 

this was just the beginning I will keep this thread updated...

Btw it took me nearly one hour to write this ;-)

 

1. It would be totally interesting to see the AI code

2. Skipping the MV might work in some special levels, but that tutorial should also give an example so you can see how to use each unit's advantages. Playing vs Humans without using MVs shouldn't be that easy

 

John, please join the group (you are already invited)

wootbean, have you ever tried playing blue? Blue is better for using deeper strategies, it has got more different units which support a more complex gamestyle