A Compiled List of Strategies

Here is the list of strategies that I have encountered or used to much success thus far:

1) Bumblebee Commander Snipe:

In this strategy, one builds as many Bumblebees as possible (around 50), and sends them directly to an enemy commander to 'snipe' it. Build more (up to 100) if the enemy has anti-air defences, to bypass some of it.

Cons:
- Fails to work if the enemy has lots of anti-air defences, or if the enemy starts on a different planet.
- You lose most of your Bumblebees in the commander blast radius, and have to rebuild.

2) Hornet Commander Snipe:

In here, one rushes straight for tier 2 Hornet bombers, by rushing a T2 air factory, and puts as many as 10 bot/vehicle fabs on the factory to rush the Hornets, while supplementing them with Hummingbirds for anti-air and scouting. The Hummingbirds should be used to scout the enemy commander first, and the Hornets will target the Commander and decapitate it ASAP.

Pros:
- You save time by not having to deal with the enemy's armies.
- Few people use this strategy, so a lot of neophytes will be caught off-guard.
- Because Hornets stay out of range of commander blast radius, you can save them for future use.

Cons:
- Fails if the enemy has lots of anti-air.
- Fails if you are under lots of harassment or rushes.

3) Boombot Commander Snipe:

For this strategy, one builds as many T1 bot factories as far as possible, and spams the heck out of Boombots. Generally, one builds up to around 200 Boombots, then scouts ahead to find the enemy commander, and catches the commander by surprise by blowing him up, by bypassing all defenses. Increase the number to 300 if needed.

Pros:
- Boombots still die in 1-hit regardless of any weapon due to their low HP. This means, even a 4000-damage Uber cannon from a Vanguard will still kill a Boombot in one hit, or a T3 laser turret will still kill each Boombot in one hit. This means 400 Boombots can easily bypass defenses to rush straight to the commander.

Cons:
- Sadly, splash damage is the bane of Boombots.
- You lose all your boombots too, against each commander.

4) Space Fab Commander Snipe:

In this troll strategy, one builds about 10 Space Fabs, then uses Advanced Satellites/ Ordinary Radar satellites to scout for the enemy commander. One then sends the Space Fabs to another planet, and then sends then back exactly at the point where the stationary enemy commander is at, together with a radar, to instantly reclaim the commander in 5 seconds.

Cons:
- Does not work if the enemy commander is roaming or is put in an air transport.
- Does not work well if there are too many anti-Orbitals, unlike SXX laser snipe, which is instantaneous.
- Does not work if there is only 1 main planet.

5) SXX Laser Commander Snipe:

The infamous SXX Laser snipe. Same as (4), but this time with at least 4 SXX Laser Platforms. Scout ahead with an advanced satellite. Then send them directly at the spot where an enemy commander is at after exiting orbit. Instant death.

Cons:
- Does not work if the enemy commander is roaming or in a transport.
- Does not work if there is only one planet.

6) Vanguard Commander Snipe Rush:

Rush a tier 2 vehicle factory. Put 10 Fabs on it to assist-build Vanguards. Rush it to the enemy commander and snipe him.

Cons:
- Does not work if the enemy rushes orbital and runs to another planet.
- Hard to execute if you are under heavy harassment.

7) Dox spam harassment hit-and-run Strategy:

Build only Doxes right at the start. Build lots of T1 factories. Get 2 fabs to spam metals. Another 2 to spam energy. Get your commander to build factories. Spam the heck out of Doxes. Then send your first group of 50 to the enemy base and keep using hit-and-run to destroy his metal extractors and energy. Keep sending new squadrons to repeat. Avoid direct engagement with enemy troops. Let your allies bulldoze the enemy base while he struggles with his economy.

Cons:
- Requires a lot of attention to execute successfully, since you must control your Doxes at all times to avoid them being sent to their deaths due to low HP.
- Fails on very large maps when it is hard to find enemy.
- Need backing of allies to work, as your Doxes aren't powerful enough to confront enemy forces head-on.

8) Typical Tier 1 Vehicle Spam Strategy

Self-explanatory.

Pros:
- One of the safest and most tested strategies at land rush.

Cons:
- Due to the cheapness of T2 factories in recent patches, any enemy that successfully rushes T2 vehicles first will wipe you out easily, regardless of how many T1s you have, as a single T2 can easily take out 10 T1s.

9) T1 Vehicle Rush + Quick T2 Vehicle Rush using Fabs

Same as (8), but you build only 3 T1 vehicle factories. One of your T1 factories spams fabs on the other 2 to rush production. Until you are finally able, build a T2 factory and get all your fabs from the 2 T1 factories to switch and assist-build the T2 factory to quickly build T2 units. Normally Vanguards.

Pros:
- You can easily switch specializations/focus using your fabs, unlike the rigidity of spamming 10 T1 factories, which cannot 'switch' productions to assist the T2 factory.

Cons:
- A squadron of Bumblebees will wipe out your fabs.
- Easily stoppable by T1 vehicle rush or Dox rush.

10) 100% Pure Orbital Rush

Simply rush an orbital factory, an Astraus, and abandon base by getting your commander to another world.

Pros:
- Good for long-term advantage, if you leave a crammed planet.
- Good for long-term victories, when you can get an entire planet by yourself and invade with 300 Tier 2s later on.

Cons:
- Easily falls victim to the next strategy (11).

11) Hybrid Orbital Rush with T1/T2 Land Units

Instead of (10), where you go 100% orbital rush, you build up a land force of around 50 T1s with support fabs first. Then you rush a space fab and build a teleport. Rush in all units and area patrol the planet, and make it your main base.

Pros:
- Can bust people using strategy (10).
- Good for long-term victories, when you can get an entire planet by yourself and invade with 300 Tier 2s later on.
- Good to gain Halley-able worlds fast.

Cons:
- Very hard to pull off if 10 other players are rushing for the same moon.

12) Orbital Rush + Turtle Hybrid Strategy

Quickly rush anchors backed up by Avengers. Build your main base slowly or start piling up nukes while your Anchors make short work of all attackers.

Pros:
- Difficult to counter if you do this early, especially if you have Avenger superiority + Umbrellas to guard your Anchors.
- Very good defences against everything else.
- Good to gain Halley-able worlds fast.

Cons:
- Can't do much against an army of 500 Tier 2s, regardless of how many Anchors you spam.

13) Anchor Spam (late-game)

The notorious Anchor spam strikes again. In the very late-game, a base that fails to build sufficient Umbrellas + Avengers will fall to this easily.

Cons:
- Fails if the enemy has too many anti-orbitals.
- Needs a lot of resources and space fabs to build Anchors up fast.

14) Early anti-air T1 Hummingbird Rush

Build a T1 air factory at the start, spam Hummingbirds and set target destination to area patrol the entire map. Take out all enemy air fabs fast.

Pros:
- Hummingbirds act as exploration as well.
- Disrupt enemy air fabs early in the game.
- Forces enemy to go into air defence fast.

Cons:
- Fails if the enemy does not use air fabs. Most experienced players won't spam them at the start.

15) Operation Occupy Oceanic World

Occupy a pure Ocean world fast (if your main world is land). This makes it hard for your enemies to invade.

Pros:
- Turns the game into a long-run game.
- No way for land units to invade.
- Good for SXX Laser snipe + Space Fab commander snipe strategy later on.

Cons:
- No way for you to invade the enemies either.

16) The Turtle

Considered to be the supreme pinnacle of evolution. This is a strategy tested by 220 million years of evolution since the birth of the first turtle. If it can survive for 220 million years, surely it can survive for another game right? Just sit back and turtle, by spamming walls and defences.

Pros:
- Tested by 220 million years of evolution.

Cons:
- Sadly, it only works versus newbies.
- Any T2 army can chew through the best T3 defensive structures.

17) The Portal Tactician

Build a few air fabs, and have them move around to find strategic locations around an enemy base. Set up several portals, and send troops in at all directions.

Pros:
- Works splendidly as a diversionary tactic on very large maps, as it fools the enemy about your real location.
- Forces enemy to play on the defensive.
- Few players will even think that portals can be used like this since most will expect them to be interplanetary in scope.

18) Tier 2 Air Transport Drop "Inferno/Vanguard" Drop-of-Doom:

Drops a couple of Infernos and Vanguards right on the enemy commander. GG.

Pros:
- Most players don't expect this!

Cons:
- Anti-air defences can nullify this.

19) Astraus Transport "Vanguard" Drop of Doom:

Same as (18), but with Astrauses between planets.

Pros:
- Most players don't expect this!

Cons:
- Anti-Orbitals can nullify this.

Cons:
- Easily countered by anti-air Hummingbirds.

20) The Anchor Spam + Space Factory Construction Anti-Umbrella Distraction.

Same as the Anchor spam strategy mentioned earlier, but this time, space fabs build a space factory on top of an Umbrella controlled zone fast. Then start building stuff indefinitely. For odd reasons, the Umbrellas will keep targetting the unit to be constructed again and again, instead of the factory, allow you to use it as a shield, while you build Anchors up.

21) Invincible Teleporter Rush:

Rush in a teleport on an enemy planet filled with hundreds of Tier 2 patrols using like 20 Space Fabs. Then set assist on the teleport to make it be repaired indefinitely.

These are focused on "quick win" techniques. Tbh I usually prefer to win using more standard approaches- e.g land armies (a number of different unit compositions can work, contrary to popular opinion of 'T2 vecs of bust'), anchors overhead- not a very fast way to win and cuter-able with umbrellas or orbital fighters but a good distraction regardless, overwhelming air power (used to destroy expansions and resources rather than going for a snipe). Teleporters- people often forget using teleporter *on the same planet* which is a very powerful strategy. Get one nice and close to your opponents base then sent a large army in on their doorstep- it bypasses all the looses due to 'attrition' style attacks from bombers, anchors, catapults and arty.

Well, and there is also the obvious stuff:

• Vanguard rush - works best on small planets
• Anchor creep - A group of 10-20 fabbers can build anchors and repeair each other faster than Avengers or Umbrellas can deal damage

And the nasty stuff:

• Com-Transfer-Exploit - make your COM invincible by sending him in an Astreus to patrol between 2 planets. All you have to do, is to wait until your enemy dies from old age
• Mass teleporter drop - build tons of teleporters to hinder your enemy. These buggers are cheap, have a lot of health and can be used to break ground based pathing on purpose. Even when not active.

10k character limit. Can't add any further.

The two orbital snipes (SSX and Orbital Fabricator) do work if there is only one planet, it's just harder.

Yup, but due to their slow speed, it can be harder against experienced players who will just spam Umbrellas anyway.

Vanguard rush (still) is very sick by the way.

I just won the last 2 games using Vanguard rush. Early in the game, nothing can stop them.

Turtles have been around for 220 or so million years FYI.

It's more of a rush tactics, but a good list regardless.

Pelter creep should be in.

I purposely excluded Pelter creep because I kind of noticed that it rarely works due to the nature of PA being skewed towards mobile offensive gameplay. Oftentimes when I use Pelter creep, it is too easy for the enemy to ruin it using Bumblebee carpet bombs to wipe out the fabs.

Buildings in PA are too fragile right now to be worth building offensively right now, as a few shots from a Sheller or Leveler can take out even the bulkiest of defensive structures.

Its sad to see that most tactics just abuse broken game mechanics (4 units that kill a commander in an instant and can just "appear" over him, wtf), things like boombots etc. are at least legit, t1/t2 rushes, and i CAN say that even bombersnipers have more of a reason to exist in this game (even though these are strategies for lamer too), but you know, are there any strategies in this game that actually require... strategic thinking? =O

No.

The reason for that is simple: No plan survives first contact with the enemy, unless it's really cheesy.