How do you usually start a game

Discussion in 'Planetary Annihilation General Discussion' started by andrehsu, January 19, 2015.

  1. andrehsu

    andrehsu Active Member

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    What is the best way to start a (average)match? (Resource, scouting, factories, etc)
  2. thetrophysystem

    thetrophysystem Post Master General

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    Factory, scouting, about 6 early units to attack something undefended by the enemy while you build up a "unit ball" with everything after 6.

    After doing that, you get eco. And when scouting and getting eco, denying enemy expansion comes slightly higher in priority, than your own expansion. Need to do both, but if you are choosing, wreck an enemy expansion over making your own elsewhere. Besides, if he was expanding there, with any luck you can deny him and benefit from it yourself while he goes without.

    Suffocation is the name of the game, and it's best to place the pillow directly on their face from the first 20 seconds (when you should have 2-6 combat units made and send them looking for an enemy fabber to kill or something)
    jeffrobot and ArchieBuld like this.
  3. andrehsu

    andrehsu Active Member

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    what initial factory is best, and also how many fabbers to build initially?
  4. theseeker2

    theseeker2 Well-Known Member

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    I start by building (with my commander) 1 air factory>2 mexes>9 t1 energy>energy storage>7 more t1 energy...
    I start building (with my 1st factory set to assist itself) 5 air fabbers>1 scout>5 more air fabbers>1 scout>lots and lots of fighters
    I start building (with the first 5 air fabbers) a radar>area mex build
    I start building (with the last 5 air fabbers) factories, lots and lots of factories - vehicle factories
    At that point, my beginning build order is done, and I now start to do whatever my situation demands.
    I haven't tested it much online, I've won one game with it and lost another, but the one I lost I was using a trackpad because my desktop was being a shitter that day. It works well against the AI, win in under 3 minutes unless on different planets
  5. lizard771

    lizard771 Well-Known Member

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    I start with a bot factory, 1-2 fabbers and a lot of dox (infinite).
    Then I'll decide on whether to use more bots and then tanks, immediately go tanks, or build an air factory first.
    Based on my expansion I'll then decide what to do and what to build.

    I think air fabbers are too risky to use, because fighters can one-hit them.
    cptconundrum likes this.
  6. silenceoftheclams

    silenceoftheclams Active Member

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    A word of advice - do not use this build in a single-planet 1v1! Most high-level builds will include an air factory in their first 3 factories, and they will bring in fighters. One shot from a fighter will kill an air fabber, an even a single fighter can kill all of your early fabbers if it's microed. I have killed so, so many players in 1v1 and FFA because they used a build like this - and it can lose to one fighter. Use ground-based fabbers, protect them with units and fighters, and don't over-invest in early fabbers unless you know your opponent is on another planet, or just not contesting your expansion. The build described by seeker is only good for fast, fast economic expansion when you know your opponent is on another planet, or in low-level play where the players don't scout, or harass.

    To find a good build - you can watch the last ladder matches played by the top 3 players, right from the menu. I do this a lot as it's entertaining, but just watch what they build, and learn from how they play on each of the different ladder maps.
    cptconundrum likes this.
  7. g0hstreaper

    g0hstreaper Well-Known Member

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    I usually click on a location varying 1-5 then play the game XD
  8. MrTBSC

    MrTBSC Post Master General

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    depends on map ...
    usualy second or third air is a save bet
    if its land heavy with many terrainfeatures you may want to go bots first imo


    if its more open then tanks

    waterheavy with islands naval

    if its half water half land go bots first as dox can travers water fairly quick ...
    then naval

    lava is a bit thougher as it depends ... well on the ammount of lava ... so air second the least ..
  9. violetania

    violetania Well-Known Member

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    Um.... i'm generally a 3 fabber person before the end of 5 minutes, so either 3 fabbers straight up or 1 fabber after 5 dox(infinite build) but i build fabbers as soon as i start floating.

    In terms of builds, the factories vary between maps but it's generally 2 factories, 1 radar, 3 power gens, 3 factories, 3 power gens, 4 factories and so on... if i want t2 generally i build a p storage and a mex storage and wait for them to be at least half way green before i start. At the start i have 2 fabbers on metal (separately) and 1 on power gens. If they're comm pushing hardcore my comm tends to build walls as well >.< And i always make sure i have 1 air fabber up on my opponent from scouting.... I prefer dox for raiding but air seems to be the new meta?

    If you don't know already, ctrl clicking is really good for air =3 I hope this was relatively relevant for your reasoning behind the question =D hehe
    cptconundrum likes this.
  10. jeffrobot

    jeffrobot Member

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    I make sure to land my comm next to a mex. My build is usually: bot factory, mex, bot factory, pgen, air factory, pgen, bot factory, pgen, bot factory, then whatever. I build one fabber from the first bot factory and have him start building mex and a radar. After a few minutes I get one or two more fabbers and start building energy while my comm keeps building factories.
  11. stuart98

    stuart98 Post Master General

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    Bot fac mex veh fac med pgen air fac mex pgen pgen veh fac x 3 pgens x 10 veh facs x 5
    First bot fac should build dox fabber dox x 10 fabber infinite dox.
    First veh fac should build fabber then infinite ants. You want your ant spinner inferno ratio to be 4:1:1.

    First fabber should build nothing but mex.
    Second should build a radar then nothing but mex.
    Third should build nothing but pgens.

    Send first dox out to enemy spawn as soon as it's finished. Send additional dox out in groups of 3-6. Prioritize killing fabbers.

    Build additional air facs as needed to keep up with fighter production.

    If the enemy com is open (No nearby dox) get out a bunch of bot facs out and spam boom bots. Once you have around 30 throw every combat unit you have at the enemy commander.
  12. mot9001

    mot9001 Well-Known Member

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    Bot or vehicle factory, then endless engineers. Use the commander to make endless energy, or 1 more factory then endless energy.
  13. nuketf

    nuketf Active Member

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    how do you start a game? well....


    1. open PA

    2.go to Custom games

    3.make a room with the requested number of players

    4. pick the map you want

    5.wait untill full then play!
  14. Deletive

    Deletive Member

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    When I start a game:
    Commander:
    1. Bot factory (build 3 fabers and set rest to dots)
    2. Energy Storage, gives me some extra energy to work with.
    3. Either another Bot Factory or an Air factory. (Bot: 2 more fabbers then Dox. Air: 3 Air per bomber)
    4. Then either Pgens or Tank factories.
    Fabbers:
    1. 2 of them working on Metal
    2. 1 on radar then Pgen
  15. knub23

    knub23 Active Member

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    It depends but I am experimenting with this:

    Commander:

    • 1. Bot factory
    • 2. Assist it to build 1st fabber
    • 3. Mex
    • 4. Air factory
    • 5. Pgen
    • 6. Vehicle Factory
    • 7. Pgen
    • 8. Pgen
    • 9. Vehicle Factory
    • 10. go to 5
    (you need some power in between depending on the map; it only works because the expanding fabber sometimes has to walk, I did not do the maths with factory roll-off times (where do I get them?) and average walking times yet, so maybe this build is energy-trouble). To build a 3rd fabber you need to build extra energy before, I usually wait until I have 3 or 4 vehicle factories. Bot factory spams dox and air factory spams fighters.

    1st Fabber:

    • Mex

    2nd Fabber:

    • 1. Radar
    • 2. Assist Commander
    (if you play the 1v1 maps you can choose to ignore radar and scout with your air to get a faster first vehicle factory; don't forget the radar, build it after you have some factories running).

    ------------------------

    I still have to check this build more so maybe it is really bad. But the general idea is that you don't build too many fabricators early on because you need the energy and you need an army to go into early confrontations.
  16. theseeker2

    theseeker2 Well-Known Member

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    why always endless engineers? is everyone else really that bad at managing engineer production and ensuring their survival?
  17. stuart98

    stuart98 Post Master General

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    Don't EVER make endless engineers.

    Endless engineers means you're always making more economy so that you can make more engineers so that you can make more economy. Do I need to say why this is bad?
  18. evilhands

    evilhands New Member

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    I usually perform a hakka to demoralise the enemy.

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