What is everyone's opening build?

Try opening with a eng storage... I always get energy stalls if I don't.. I am curious to if others find this helpful.

I could prevent them by not making anything out of my bot factory for a tad but then.. wth was the point of making it so early lol.

Thanks, I'll experiment with that a bit. That build I posted is one I haven't been using for very long yet, it is still very much open to a lot of experimenting and suggestion. Though I've tried going factory earlier, it usually ends up me stalling massively on energy as I start using those 10 engineers.

But why don't you share your build though?

Because I don't have one right now.

There's a bunch of surprisingly different builds being posted.

Not sure if it's because PA is awesome and allows for lots of variety or if a bunch of us are incredibly stupid.

...

I'll tell myself that it's the first one...

1mex, 1power, 2mex, 1power,bot factory with 10 builders que while commander builds row and row of power gens, the builders then go off for mexs and build a air factory when eco isn't to far in the negitive

I'll try putting up a second energy plant before factory, maybe that works better.

What I did (well with more power) until I played liquius. He had spammed an army before I finished. Lol.

Your not the only one. It seems to actually work well for some people...

2/3 mex > 3-6 energy > factory or storage > bots/fabs/scout. That's the way a lot of my Beta start builds end up. Any suggestions or detractions to that order?

I'm a 2 mex, 2 power, 1 factory of choice kinda guy.

At that point I try to go for local mex's with the com while new engineers build more power and head for other mex's.

I am trying to avoid building metal storage for purposes other then as a big blocky wall ATM, but in games against the AI I can get 12 land factory's going within a few mins, but that of course depends on rushing and resource opportunity.

12 land factory's building tanks can build an constant chain of units, and is usually a very good number for building factory blocks.

I used your build (from your video that you did)

Everything went really well. I was totally dominating the AI.

Then he dropped a nuke on top of my commander/power generation complex. I went negative 40,000 for about 3 minutes, after which he dropped 5 more nukes on my base. One of them hit my commander

Building more than two energy plants before a factory is a waste.

You can power a commander, fabber, and factory with two energy > factory > commander maxing out energy.

Just get one of your first three fabbers assisting the commander.

Sounds like you need to be more aggressive and build anti nukes.

If you're more aggressive you can keep your opponent (the AI) to have a strong enough economy to build a nuke.

Im still a work in progress and have a few weaknesses im working on. but at the moment i like
Commander:
Mex
Power
Mex
Power
Mex (if available)
Factory (bot or vehicle - whatever suits the planet type or my mood.)
[mex+power+power] repeat until all mex within about 2 line of sight diameters of my com spawn are used
Power x whatevers required to get to 11K income after previous
Metal storage (build this second if a long walk from mex 1 to 2)
Energy Storage
Metal Storgae
Energy Storage
Air Plant
Assist fabbers on adv land factory

Factory:
2 Fabbers - these together work on a ring of the closest mexes around my spawn that are out of the coms range
scout - to double check im not sending the first two fabs to build in someones base (espeically on smaller maps.)
2 fabbers - one assists com, other builds 4/5 basic factories, then three to four adv factories.
[five dox/ants
2 fabbers- mex or defence duty in pairs] repeat

Subsequent factories spam units, with 1 in five building AA units

the problem im having is i get my first adv fabber out and immediately have an energy stall so im still tinkering. and my other issue is im often quite a way behind on intel, often my first radar is finishing the adv radar sat. (i build orbital as my first non fusion/advmex t2 building i know this is insanely stupid but at the moment im winning more than i lose so havent felt the need to adjust too much

Yes it's a waste at the start but if you aren't harassed within the first few minute you end up owning the map. The fabs can build without a stale in energy.... as many of them as you can spam.

Yeah raiding is a weakness

I thought I was doing well - there were 100 bots sitting inside his base pummelling his energy and factories when he nuked me, and they were the 4th or 5th wave. His base was quite small. I'm not entirely sure how he got 5 nukes up, because after the game ended I couldn't find any of the launchers...

How do you use them? I have still to see an anti-nuke shoot a nuke down.. My most successful anti-nuke game was when I had a bunch of air factories, and when he started with the nukes I just sent my bombers and fighters to clear out the area. I had reached critical mass with the bombers (so they were able to target missile towers and destroy them in one pass)

I've found that it is always better to build a nuke and multiple bases then it is to build anti nukes just make sure to keep your commander hidden from his detection ether have a air force patrol or make sure they are not going orbital ether way if you have a nuke before they do target power ussally they don't have a back up base with more power there so they will be crippled when you walk in with your army the best bit is when all defenses run on power this will work even better

I'd actually prefer it if defences didn't run on power...

IF you lose a good chunk of your power capacity, then it's basically impossible to recover. Your ability to build more powerplants is stunted

As is your ability to build units to defend your base

As is your ability to build defences to defend your base.

As is your ability to repair buildings.

Your foe is going to gain a lot of the 3rd resource (time) regardless of what happens after that. When you walk in with your army, you can go to town on his defences, and he can't do anything to replace losses.

I have played RTS where base defences need to be powered. I accept the concept. I just think that it makes power generation too dominant a concept in the game. I'd prefer it if they ran on metal. (yes metal would have the same effects, but I have never been negative metal to the point where I can't come out of it)


I know it's a confirmed feature. There are plenty of artillery units in the current build however, and they have said that they intend to have 100+ units, which don't include structures. I think Tier 1 defences should still work without energy, because those would be out-ranged by mobile artillery untis

There is so no "one build fits all start order" nowadays. Anything I do depends on the walking distance between mex spots.

Ideally 3 mex 1 energy mex bot lab start. Usual stuff after.

If have have long walking distances I will just build 3mex. If longer maybe throw in an energy storage before the factory. But the fundamentals are all the same. Try waste as little as possible. 2 energy before factory is crazy wastage in my eyes.

You can have fabbers building without stalling out in energy with 2 energy plants.

Raiding is not a weakness. Raiding is how you win – especially when playing against other players. If you don't raid – you lose. You have to attack your opponent to win.

How is raiding a weakness? If you sit in your base and never attack you will never win. Play me sometime and I'll show you how raiding is a strength. Sometimes I can win a match in the opening 10 minutes because I'm raiding and keeping my opponent suppressed.

You build a anti-nuke, and have the anti-nuke build missiles. (just like a factory) Then missiles that fly through the area will get shot down. Keep in mind that it takes time to build anti-nukes and you may want to assist them being built. Also, anti-nukes aren't guaranteed to hit. Intel on the incoming missile increases the chances of it being shot down.

Godde, Gunshin, Colacolin and Clopse
do not be shy, and do not just comment on other starts. We are really interested to know your starting strategies.

thanks to OP for the thread