2008-04-24, 22:40:30
Ok, so you conquered all CPs, destroyed every tower and managed to push the other team to their base. All fine and dandy? Then how come the besieged managed after 5 minutes to upgrade all at once and push back? Even won? That is because nobody in the team used effective siege tactics!
I've noticed that a lot of games i've played were either won quickly or totally switched over because the opposing team did not know how to attack the base effectively. Indeed, most people only try to kill the player tanks, thinking that being stronger is a sure ticket to victory. This is not always the case. Even in a conquest victory effective sieging can be useful, as are certain tricks to counter siege tactics.
Let's see the basics here (I forgot the exact names of some buildings, sorry)
Towers: Unless you are carrying some serious firepower, towers are usually quite powerful and will prove to be an effective defense from average attacks on the base. There are some things that you should know:
- Towers owned by force players will always target creeps first. Thus, when attacking, make sure you have some creeps around to soak it up. Rocket towers have splash damage, so keep clear of those creeps they target.
- Ruins: Destroyed towers leave a ruin, with which you can buy a new tower. It is costly (1k for rockets, 2k for laser, 850 for barracks), and seldom worth the cash, with a few exceptions.
- Additional weapons and modules: You can put weapons in towers (but cannot take them back), and put Tinker modules in them to further boost their effectiveness. A couple of lvl 5 modules can go a long way to boost a tower.
- Upgrades: Unlike Tinker-made towers, the towers gains a significant boost with upgrades. Their life can nearly quadruple, which can make them vary hard to destroy. Plus, they cost the same no matter what the actual tech level. Same goes for damage output.
- Stun: You can stun towers with spells. Usefull on these pesky laser towers for a one or two second or no damage.
Factories: Factories owned by the force players are irreplacable. Once destroyed, they are gone forever. Not only will they not give creeps anymore, the other faction will gain a boost in income as well. They are the prime targets of any siege tactics.
Research center: A special factory that spawns only catapult creeps. It is one of a kind and cannot be replaced once destroyed. It's tactical value is the same as a factory.
Main base: The single most important building of the game. Lose it, and it's game over. The building itself however is invincible if the two towers nears it are up. Therefore, you need to destroy these towers to actually damage the base. The defenders spawn near it, and can buy new towers to replace the old one. You must overpower the other team to actually win. Which can be easy, or hard, especially late-game.
Factory limits: While player can buy factories, there is a limit of six within the walls of the base, and three overall. Why six in main base? That is because the force factories count towards that number. So unless you have lost some, you cannot place a player owned factory in the base.
Exclusive ruins: The ruins of the towers that compose the base (and the one that is near trader leader) are force-exclusive. That means only allied troops can buil towers in them. So you cannot rebuild towers like you can near CPs to give yourself an edge over the resident team.
Anti-Teleporting field: It is impossible to teleport and jump (as gravity tank) in an enemy base. You can teleport/jump out however, as mean to escape.
Walls: The base is surrounded by walls, with only three possible ways to enter (unless you fly). While this seems trivial, there is actually many ways to use the walls to your advantage, even when attacking!
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Now that we know what's inside the base: let's see the pros and cons of being sieged. Yes, there ARE advantages.
Cons:
- You are about to lose if you don't react. This is your last chance.
- Much less space to move.
- Surprise tactics are severely restricted.
- You cannot trade effectively (highly dangerous but possible).
- You cannot buy weapons at the mid shop and cannot easly switch to special tanks (infernal and titans mostly).
- More creeps to kill. You can be flooded if you are not careful.
Pros:
- More creeps to kill: means more revenue. Buy a creep only weapon to counter the higher creep count, and rack in cash while doing it.
- Easy regeneration: Factories are close, therefore with a little preparation you can be very difficult to kill. Heal from multiple factories stack.
- Bottlenecks: You know where the enemy will come from. That gives you many ways to prepare. Mines come into mind.
- No offensive enemy teleportation: Means exploders and teleport jackers have to use new tricks to get to you. This makes them way more predictable. But you can use your teleportation to your heart content, to prevent others from leaving by teleporting, you can put teleport breakers near entrances. garanted surprise, but you still have to be close to profit from it.
Usually, that means if you can prolong the siege without losing critical structures (factories), you can have a VERY high income advantage over the enemy team. And by that I mean about 2-3 times more creep money. This is a lot! Mix that to the fact that you are harder to kill and that opposing players are more likely to die because they have to take more risks, and you have a pretty bad situation for them. Conversly, they have a lot less creep to kills, and less income, therefore must do with much less cash. This can make upgrading a pain.
Therefore, when a siege begins, there are about 3 basic scenarios that will come up:
- Defending players, if smart, will try to prolong the siege so they can get more cash, and make a comeback once they get better tanks and equipment.
- Defending players will lose if conquest is on, and siege drags on.
- Offensive players will overpower defenders and manage to kill critical structures one by one, thereby wilting away the defending advantage and eventually lose.
Hence, the major factor here is time. The longer the siege drags on without a shift in power, the better the advantage for defenders. For attackers, the quicker the siege is succesful, the better their chance to win the game.
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DEFENDER STRATEGIES
- NEVER let an enemy attack buildings unopposed: If you let a player shave of towers one at a time, he will reach your factories. If he does, then there is a definite chance that he will be able to destroy them. Thus, always go the nearest attacker to bolster your defense. Your goal is to rack up damage quickly to persuade the attacker to leave. Killing him is optional, the real option is to make cease his attack. Usually, creeps are not able to destroy buildings on their own (except by teching), so the real targets must be the players themselves. Wiping out creeps around (with an AoE spell) is a very effective strategy to postpone attacks on your buildings. If you have to, teleport to quickly bolster your defenses.
- Repair, Repair, Repair: This is often not done, and it is a critical flaw of any defensive strategy. Very often the attackers will try to damage critical structures little by little (be it towers or factories). You have to repair such little damage. Of course, this is only useful if the damage is done to your building by small increments (see rule above). If you can keep damage to a minimum, then you can repair it. There are two effective ways to do this (the third, letting towers repair themselves on their own, is not effective, and is actually dooming your buildings to a slow death). The first is to have a tinker do it. Yes, one of th team can switch tinker to do this. Use your repair modules and innate repair skills. Since you are usually close to factories, mana will not be a problem. Second, and anyone can do this, buy mech bots. These guys cost a low as 500g (peanuts if you have augmented revenue like in a siege), are hard to kill (they cannot be killed unless they take about 8k damage) and repair hundreds of hitpoints in seconds. If you buy a few of them (say, 4-5), you can repair a half-dead tower in a matter of a single minute. When no towers are being damaged, leave them in the back of the base, with auto-repair on so they can heal themsleves, and send them to repair duties when called for. Get them in a control group so you can easily control the bunch of them.
- Rebuild: Lasers towers can have some impact for defense. But they are costly and are better left to the inner ruins, where they are better protected from fire. If you have teched up, then towers can be very effective. And always, always rebuild ruins around the main base. They make you (as you respawn) and your main base much harder to kill. And can (and must) rebuild factories as well, but you have an advantage when doing this, you can place them in other ways than the initial spots. The very best spot to place your factories is in fact BEHIND (version 8.42) the main base. I was told there is enough space to fit all three, but you need to leave space so creeps can go out of them. Once they are there, they are practically impossible to destroy, as the main base stands before them. Of course, volontarily losing factories to place them here is a bad idea.
- Buy anti-creep weaponry: You will get swamped with creeps. Creeps will attacks your buildings, kill your own, and most importantly, provide protection for attackers inside your own base. Therefore, you must get rid of them quickly. The fact that an anti-creep weapon will give you loads of cash in the process is an added bonus.
- Upgrade armor: If you got too much cash and cannot spend it wisely, upgrade creep armor. It makes your buildings MUCH harder to destroy, which can be a lifesaver. It makes your creeps last much longer and can make a creep flood much easier to counter. If the defender have a tech advantage, they can possibly prolong the siege indefinitely. A very defensive and reapair-minded team of mine once was able to stave off suiciding infernals (rain of chaos in middle of base, see attacking strategies) from damaging the city too much, allowing for a complete repair between each pass. Needless to say, we fed of him big time. Repair takes longer, bit the increased in net value in repairing is higher. It all adds up.
- Teleporting defenders: Everyone should buy a teleporter. Increased revenue makes it easier. Once you have one, you can zip inside your base with ease to defend key points. This is vital as one of the main attacker tactic is to create diversion so one of them can attack buildings alone.
-Stay alive above all else: Do not die. Dying is critical in defense, as if you die, you are effectively letting an attacker alone to destroy your buildings. Do not get cocky and try to pick nearly dead attackers if you are going to die in the process. Unlike in the main game, 1 death - 1 kill is NOT recommended in defense.
- Assess each danger separately: Know what to aim for. A bunch of creep alone is not dangerous. But a bunch of mortars protected by a player are much more dangerous. Mortar teams are the single most dangerous thing a defender can face. If you see some (or a guy with a siege pack coming), do everything in your power to kill them as quickly as possible. AoE spells are fine (low HP, thankfully), but it may even be worth it to suicide to counter a mass mortar spawn. As mortars can kill a single building in a matter of seconds, it is crucial to react quickly. Even more dangerous are players with siege weapons (there are two such weapons), as they clearly show that this particular player knows how to siege effectively. Close player owned factories are TOP PRIORITY. Do anything you can to destroy them.
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OFFENSIVE STRATEGIES
- Finish it quick: Getting the other team in a defensive position is often a demoralizing situation. More often than not (unfortunately), people will not play better, leave, or just play like douches because they are "about to lose". Even if they don't ("To the bitter end!" Like I always say), you still have not won. So hit them hard this point on with siege tactics to shorten game span, and better your chance of success. Additionnaly, it takes a bit of time to switch from a normal strategy to a defensive strategy, and less to continue attacking with siege modification. Use that time to nail the coffin. Of, course, if you are playing on conquest, then just wasting time is fine, as long as you make sure they can't leave their base to recapture CPs.
- Get siege capabilities: Unless you have 2k+ DPS at your disposal, you are not going to hurt these buildings easily. So bring in an alternate method. There are four easy ways: certain spells, two weapons, siege packs and a few consumables.
Spells (or skills, whatever...): Heavy Tank -> mortar teams (less effective than siege pack, but still packs a very good wallop), Titan -> Shutdown (nearly 8k damage to a single building), every AoE spells (especially skytank, although overall they are less effective), Infernal -> Rain of chaos (it hurts buildings bad, actually better than most AoE spells), Goblin Tank and shredder -> "whack" spell. Anything else is good, but not incredible.<
Weapons: Rock catapult (3k) and burning projectiles (7k). Awsome weapons. 1050 range, so thay can target building at max range. Unfortunately, they can counter-attack, so have a few creep around you. Since they have two modes (building and normal), switch to building when you plan to attack a building only, or normal the reste of the time. They can target players, and their damage is huge, so they can be helpful when not sieging. They do however extra damage to building (as opposed to anything else, which does reduced damage to buildings because of armor type), so you'll know when you hit one. This is a useful tactic when you are attacking a base with numerous creeps, because since they target ONLY buildings, the fact that there are creeps around will not save the building, although it can be dangerous to you, be careful. They are pricey weapons, but once you know how to use them, they are fearsome.
Siege packs: Absolute best siege apparatus. Cheap (2.5k), unlimited uses, go up in effectiveness with tech level. Pops three mortars that have longer range than towers (1300 I think). It takes one "pop" of mortar teams to destroy any building at same tech level. They are however fragile, and so you must protect them by getting before them, as is with any creeps, other creeps will target them first. For absolute mortar fun, know that the cooldown of a siege pack is different from the heavy tank own mortar team spell and the following mortar team consumable. We're talking about 9+ mortars at same time. Enough to bust about 5-7 buildings if left alone.
Consumables: mortar teams cost 400 each, and act as a single use of a siege pack. Useful early game to waste an early laser tower (cost 400, gain 300+, loss for the guy who buit it: 2k). Since player owned factories sell them, you can get a crapload of them in a short time by spending about 2k (see factory push below).
Most of these methods cost only mana, and every serious sieger can allow for at least ONE slot to go for anti-building duty. Besides, buildings are worth good cash, so they may even be worth the investment (winning the game aside).
- Creeps are your friends: Creeps will be one your deadliest weapons against a sieged base. But if not taken care of, they will turn into your downfall (because once they are killed, which will happen a lot, they give cash). Since you are on a smaller budget, you have a difficult choice: upgrade yourself or upgrade the team effort (usually teching creeps). There ways to decide which, but usually pumping an upgrade or two once in a while is a great choice. As a general rule, you have everything to gain to be at a higher tech level. Also, having 3 additionnal factories when sieging is a great way to put pressure. It should be also noted that is better to place them in different lines to make sure they dont get slaugthered in vain at the same spot. As an added bonus, player creeps are worth almost nothing, hence you are not giving out cash by doing so, only more pain (and a few bucks for yourself when they kill something). Teching is more profitable when there are more creeps, obviously. Creep based tanks (Guard and Ghost tank) also benefit from added power from this, as do every creep spawning objet there is.
- Keep the pressure: Attack always. And if possible, at multiple spots at same time. If they cant be everywhere, then you are attacking alone and this is bad for their buildings.
- Aim for buildings: When sieging, killing other players and creep is second to attacking buildings. The only way to break a stalemate is to destroy their infrastructure. To this end, knowing how to damage building is paramount.
1: The first way is the passive way: get in the thick of it, and a few licks from your weapon will damage buildings. It is good but not enough. Just going into the base for a few second and then retreating is not enough. Often though, when a building is nearly dead, it is worth it to combat another tank, and while some shots will go to him and the damage regenerated, the real target is behind. Once destroyed, retreat.
2: Get in the range to hit only a SINGLE tower. This is most easily done by weapon with shorter range. Approach a tower from an angle, and try to pump all your shots into it. Get a few creeps of your own before attempting this to absorb the tower hits. Using spells to target the tower is also a good thing. Usually, ignore any players around you unless they pose a direct and deadly threat, like wasting all of your creeps.
3: Use siege packs. Pump them then go for technique two as they bust it themselves. Dont forget to manually AIM them if there are multiple targets. You can also just summon them and go somewhere else while they do their thing, since it only requires you to do one single click (offensive trader tactic). Be careful NOT to summon them while in tower range, or you will have wasted a shot.
4: Use walls. The laser towers and the factories close to walls can be shot at even though you are on the other side. That way, any defender that wish to stop you will have to go around the wall, losing precious time as you pummel the building. Even creeps will have to go the long way, eventually locking on another creep as they go. You can also use this with mortars, but you will have to manually position them to do this. Put them on hold on the rigth position, and enjoy. One of the trickiest thing to counter. It almost requires a teleport. My best technique. Flyers have an easy time doing this. 1000 range weapons can target the inner lasers while outside the first wall.
- Get a factory close: One of the worst thing when sieging a base is going back to heal. Nano-repair bots are not cutting it at that point, as you need to keep applying pressure constantly. So bring one factory to bear and protect it at all cost. Building a factory near the two ruins in front of the main gate is a wise choice: not too far, not too close as to be attacked. Plus, you can build barracks around it for protection. Attack, heal, repeat. When the defender is up against their main base, bring it inside, near the inside of main entrance. When you have killed a few of the defending players and created a window of opportunity, buy as much mortars teams from the factory and spawn them on the spot. Protect them as they cut a path of destruction against any building they come across. Oftentime a single of this push can win the game, even with extremely good defenders.
- Abuse any window of oppotunity: Any errors they make is your cue to act. When half the opposing team is dead, what's to stop you from attacking "en masse"? They try to go for a CP? Bust their base while they do, you can always retake the waypoint but they cant rebuild their factories. I've won a game once where they were obsessed with the CPs, but leaved their base wide open. At the end, they had only one factory left, but they had all the CPs. Guess how quick we turned the tide...
- Suicide runs: A bit of a dangerous tactic, but can prove fatal. Indeed, what is a single (or a couple) death if you wipe 3-4 factories in the process? The trick is having a ridiculously powerful spell or item go off in the middle of the base, and staying there as long as it takes. Infernal is well suited for this, because of his ultimate. But any tank with a good firepower can achieve same effect. Put some realistic goals, like "that laser tower will not continue to hinder us after this". A more "flashy" thing is to use smart bombs. They cost 4k each, and take about 7-8 seconds to detonate, which requires you to stay alive until they are primed. If not, it will not detonate, but you will not use it. They do about 17k damage in a huge range and a good load of lag (it's the same explosion that happens at every endgame, except that it affect players). Often it is enough to wipe out any building below 15 armor. In both cases, a smoke screen generator can help you stay alive for a few precious seconds. The titan is the perfect "suicider", since it can get invincible for about 5-6 seconds. Of course, if you got a titan at this point, game's probably nearly won anyway (but not always).
- Exploder madness: The enemy is a cramped spot. It SHOULD be quite easy to multi-kill (2+), but it's not thanks to teh anti-teleporting field. My trick? Get a heli and copter. Fly close, go invisible, go over them and die as you reappear. Do it rigth, and you can create a very nice windows of opportunity to attack by removing a few defenders. Unfortunately, explosives dont do that much damage to buildings (about one fourth or fifth).
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Miscelannious tactics:
- Downgrading: This one requires guts. When drastic measures are needed, dont be afraid to sacrifice yourself. This is a TEAM GAME! If you are too weak to attack, and you are just feeding off the other team, then sell everything to your team, or if they can't (or don't want your items), sell it to force. Go to basics: Tinker. And with your cash, buy factories and upgrade creeps like a madman. And stay the hell away from battle. Then, boost towers with modules, repair and whatnot. Be the leader, as you have extra time to watch things and devise a strategy. And if they laugh at you, swallow your pride. You'll laugh at them once you win. You'd be surprised how often this technique can turn a losing game into a winning one, or make a winning one into a total annilihation.
- Offensive trader: Your team is on the offensive but you cant get an edge (or foresee a long battle)? Then get your weakest member to turn to trader (instead of tinker above). You got all the waypoints, this is called unfettered trading, he can be one of the most dangerous things in the game. Trade only in the most expensive spots. Buy factories for your team, retake the few CPs they capture, buy a siege packs and pop a few one once in a while near an undefended spot, and most important of all, upgrade creeps. It migth take a while, but if you suck at sieging, then go tradin'!
- Learn the migth of the Orbital control: 5k, 30 sec cooldown, a world of pain. Use it in the entrances of the base to pick of buildings, creeps and weak players. Good in defensive as well as offensive strategies.
- Mines are powerful: When sieging, une mines. A lot. Put them in the entrances and on the main roads near the nearest CPs. And laugh as they pop on them when trying to go out. They have so few space to go on, you'd be a fool to ignore the psychological impact of knowing that the only road is a mined one. With upgrades, huge mines can do upward of 8k damage a pop. Therefore, you can kill ANY tanks with a few well placed mines. Can be used in defense and offense.
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Enjoy! See you on the battlefield!
I've noticed that a lot of games i've played were either won quickly or totally switched over because the opposing team did not know how to attack the base effectively. Indeed, most people only try to kill the player tanks, thinking that being stronger is a sure ticket to victory. This is not always the case. Even in a conquest victory effective sieging can be useful, as are certain tricks to counter siege tactics.
Let's see the basics here (I forgot the exact names of some buildings, sorry)
Towers: Unless you are carrying some serious firepower, towers are usually quite powerful and will prove to be an effective defense from average attacks on the base. There are some things that you should know:
- Towers owned by force players will always target creeps first. Thus, when attacking, make sure you have some creeps around to soak it up. Rocket towers have splash damage, so keep clear of those creeps they target.
- Ruins: Destroyed towers leave a ruin, with which you can buy a new tower. It is costly (1k for rockets, 2k for laser, 850 for barracks), and seldom worth the cash, with a few exceptions.
- Additional weapons and modules: You can put weapons in towers (but cannot take them back), and put Tinker modules in them to further boost their effectiveness. A couple of lvl 5 modules can go a long way to boost a tower.
- Upgrades: Unlike Tinker-made towers, the towers gains a significant boost with upgrades. Their life can nearly quadruple, which can make them vary hard to destroy. Plus, they cost the same no matter what the actual tech level. Same goes for damage output.
- Stun: You can stun towers with spells. Usefull on these pesky laser towers for a one or two second or no damage.
Factories: Factories owned by the force players are irreplacable. Once destroyed, they are gone forever. Not only will they not give creeps anymore, the other faction will gain a boost in income as well. They are the prime targets of any siege tactics.
Research center: A special factory that spawns only catapult creeps. It is one of a kind and cannot be replaced once destroyed. It's tactical value is the same as a factory.
Main base: The single most important building of the game. Lose it, and it's game over. The building itself however is invincible if the two towers nears it are up. Therefore, you need to destroy these towers to actually damage the base. The defenders spawn near it, and can buy new towers to replace the old one. You must overpower the other team to actually win. Which can be easy, or hard, especially late-game.
Factory limits: While player can buy factories, there is a limit of six within the walls of the base, and three overall. Why six in main base? That is because the force factories count towards that number. So unless you have lost some, you cannot place a player owned factory in the base.
Exclusive ruins: The ruins of the towers that compose the base (and the one that is near trader leader) are force-exclusive. That means only allied troops can buil towers in them. So you cannot rebuild towers like you can near CPs to give yourself an edge over the resident team.
Anti-Teleporting field: It is impossible to teleport and jump (as gravity tank) in an enemy base. You can teleport/jump out however, as mean to escape.
Walls: The base is surrounded by walls, with only three possible ways to enter (unless you fly). While this seems trivial, there is actually many ways to use the walls to your advantage, even when attacking!
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Now that we know what's inside the base: let's see the pros and cons of being sieged. Yes, there ARE advantages.
Cons:
- You are about to lose if you don't react. This is your last chance.
- Much less space to move.
- Surprise tactics are severely restricted.
- You cannot trade effectively (highly dangerous but possible).
- You cannot buy weapons at the mid shop and cannot easly switch to special tanks (infernal and titans mostly).
- More creeps to kill. You can be flooded if you are not careful.
Pros:
- More creeps to kill: means more revenue. Buy a creep only weapon to counter the higher creep count, and rack in cash while doing it.
- Easy regeneration: Factories are close, therefore with a little preparation you can be very difficult to kill. Heal from multiple factories stack.
- Bottlenecks: You know where the enemy will come from. That gives you many ways to prepare. Mines come into mind.
- No offensive enemy teleportation: Means exploders and teleport jackers have to use new tricks to get to you. This makes them way more predictable. But you can use your teleportation to your heart content, to prevent others from leaving by teleporting, you can put teleport breakers near entrances. garanted surprise, but you still have to be close to profit from it.
Usually, that means if you can prolong the siege without losing critical structures (factories), you can have a VERY high income advantage over the enemy team. And by that I mean about 2-3 times more creep money. This is a lot! Mix that to the fact that you are harder to kill and that opposing players are more likely to die because they have to take more risks, and you have a pretty bad situation for them. Conversly, they have a lot less creep to kills, and less income, therefore must do with much less cash. This can make upgrading a pain.
Therefore, when a siege begins, there are about 3 basic scenarios that will come up:
- Defending players, if smart, will try to prolong the siege so they can get more cash, and make a comeback once they get better tanks and equipment.
- Defending players will lose if conquest is on, and siege drags on.
- Offensive players will overpower defenders and manage to kill critical structures one by one, thereby wilting away the defending advantage and eventually lose.
Hence, the major factor here is time. The longer the siege drags on without a shift in power, the better the advantage for defenders. For attackers, the quicker the siege is succesful, the better their chance to win the game.
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DEFENDER STRATEGIES
- NEVER let an enemy attack buildings unopposed: If you let a player shave of towers one at a time, he will reach your factories. If he does, then there is a definite chance that he will be able to destroy them. Thus, always go the nearest attacker to bolster your defense. Your goal is to rack up damage quickly to persuade the attacker to leave. Killing him is optional, the real option is to make cease his attack. Usually, creeps are not able to destroy buildings on their own (except by teching), so the real targets must be the players themselves. Wiping out creeps around (with an AoE spell) is a very effective strategy to postpone attacks on your buildings. If you have to, teleport to quickly bolster your defenses.
- Repair, Repair, Repair: This is often not done, and it is a critical flaw of any defensive strategy. Very often the attackers will try to damage critical structures little by little (be it towers or factories). You have to repair such little damage. Of course, this is only useful if the damage is done to your building by small increments (see rule above). If you can keep damage to a minimum, then you can repair it. There are two effective ways to do this (the third, letting towers repair themselves on their own, is not effective, and is actually dooming your buildings to a slow death). The first is to have a tinker do it. Yes, one of th team can switch tinker to do this. Use your repair modules and innate repair skills. Since you are usually close to factories, mana will not be a problem. Second, and anyone can do this, buy mech bots. These guys cost a low as 500g (peanuts if you have augmented revenue like in a siege), are hard to kill (they cannot be killed unless they take about 8k damage) and repair hundreds of hitpoints in seconds. If you buy a few of them (say, 4-5), you can repair a half-dead tower in a matter of a single minute. When no towers are being damaged, leave them in the back of the base, with auto-repair on so they can heal themsleves, and send them to repair duties when called for. Get them in a control group so you can easily control the bunch of them.
- Rebuild: Lasers towers can have some impact for defense. But they are costly and are better left to the inner ruins, where they are better protected from fire. If you have teched up, then towers can be very effective. And always, always rebuild ruins around the main base. They make you (as you respawn) and your main base much harder to kill. And can (and must) rebuild factories as well, but you have an advantage when doing this, you can place them in other ways than the initial spots. The very best spot to place your factories is in fact BEHIND (version 8.42) the main base. I was told there is enough space to fit all three, but you need to leave space so creeps can go out of them. Once they are there, they are practically impossible to destroy, as the main base stands before them. Of course, volontarily losing factories to place them here is a bad idea.
- Buy anti-creep weaponry: You will get swamped with creeps. Creeps will attacks your buildings, kill your own, and most importantly, provide protection for attackers inside your own base. Therefore, you must get rid of them quickly. The fact that an anti-creep weapon will give you loads of cash in the process is an added bonus.
- Upgrade armor: If you got too much cash and cannot spend it wisely, upgrade creep armor. It makes your buildings MUCH harder to destroy, which can be a lifesaver. It makes your creeps last much longer and can make a creep flood much easier to counter. If the defender have a tech advantage, they can possibly prolong the siege indefinitely. A very defensive and reapair-minded team of mine once was able to stave off suiciding infernals (rain of chaos in middle of base, see attacking strategies) from damaging the city too much, allowing for a complete repair between each pass. Needless to say, we fed of him big time. Repair takes longer, bit the increased in net value in repairing is higher. It all adds up.
- Teleporting defenders: Everyone should buy a teleporter. Increased revenue makes it easier. Once you have one, you can zip inside your base with ease to defend key points. This is vital as one of the main attacker tactic is to create diversion so one of them can attack buildings alone.
-Stay alive above all else: Do not die. Dying is critical in defense, as if you die, you are effectively letting an attacker alone to destroy your buildings. Do not get cocky and try to pick nearly dead attackers if you are going to die in the process. Unlike in the main game, 1 death - 1 kill is NOT recommended in defense.
- Assess each danger separately: Know what to aim for. A bunch of creep alone is not dangerous. But a bunch of mortars protected by a player are much more dangerous. Mortar teams are the single most dangerous thing a defender can face. If you see some (or a guy with a siege pack coming), do everything in your power to kill them as quickly as possible. AoE spells are fine (low HP, thankfully), but it may even be worth it to suicide to counter a mass mortar spawn. As mortars can kill a single building in a matter of seconds, it is crucial to react quickly. Even more dangerous are players with siege weapons (there are two such weapons), as they clearly show that this particular player knows how to siege effectively. Close player owned factories are TOP PRIORITY. Do anything you can to destroy them.
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OFFENSIVE STRATEGIES
- Finish it quick: Getting the other team in a defensive position is often a demoralizing situation. More often than not (unfortunately), people will not play better, leave, or just play like douches because they are "about to lose". Even if they don't ("To the bitter end!" Like I always say), you still have not won. So hit them hard this point on with siege tactics to shorten game span, and better your chance of success. Additionnaly, it takes a bit of time to switch from a normal strategy to a defensive strategy, and less to continue attacking with siege modification. Use that time to nail the coffin. Of, course, if you are playing on conquest, then just wasting time is fine, as long as you make sure they can't leave their base to recapture CPs.
- Get siege capabilities: Unless you have 2k+ DPS at your disposal, you are not going to hurt these buildings easily. So bring in an alternate method. There are four easy ways: certain spells, two weapons, siege packs and a few consumables.
Spells (or skills, whatever...): Heavy Tank -> mortar teams (less effective than siege pack, but still packs a very good wallop), Titan -> Shutdown (nearly 8k damage to a single building), every AoE spells (especially skytank, although overall they are less effective), Infernal -> Rain of chaos (it hurts buildings bad, actually better than most AoE spells), Goblin Tank and shredder -> "whack" spell. Anything else is good, but not incredible.<
Weapons: Rock catapult (3k) and burning projectiles (7k). Awsome weapons. 1050 range, so thay can target building at max range. Unfortunately, they can counter-attack, so have a few creep around you. Since they have two modes (building and normal), switch to building when you plan to attack a building only, or normal the reste of the time. They can target players, and their damage is huge, so they can be helpful when not sieging. They do however extra damage to building (as opposed to anything else, which does reduced damage to buildings because of armor type), so you'll know when you hit one. This is a useful tactic when you are attacking a base with numerous creeps, because since they target ONLY buildings, the fact that there are creeps around will not save the building, although it can be dangerous to you, be careful. They are pricey weapons, but once you know how to use them, they are fearsome.
Siege packs: Absolute best siege apparatus. Cheap (2.5k), unlimited uses, go up in effectiveness with tech level. Pops three mortars that have longer range than towers (1300 I think). It takes one "pop" of mortar teams to destroy any building at same tech level. They are however fragile, and so you must protect them by getting before them, as is with any creeps, other creeps will target them first. For absolute mortar fun, know that the cooldown of a siege pack is different from the heavy tank own mortar team spell and the following mortar team consumable. We're talking about 9+ mortars at same time. Enough to bust about 5-7 buildings if left alone.
Consumables: mortar teams cost 400 each, and act as a single use of a siege pack. Useful early game to waste an early laser tower (cost 400, gain 300+, loss for the guy who buit it: 2k). Since player owned factories sell them, you can get a crapload of them in a short time by spending about 2k (see factory push below).
Most of these methods cost only mana, and every serious sieger can allow for at least ONE slot to go for anti-building duty. Besides, buildings are worth good cash, so they may even be worth the investment (winning the game aside).
- Creeps are your friends: Creeps will be one your deadliest weapons against a sieged base. But if not taken care of, they will turn into your downfall (because once they are killed, which will happen a lot, they give cash). Since you are on a smaller budget, you have a difficult choice: upgrade yourself or upgrade the team effort (usually teching creeps). There ways to decide which, but usually pumping an upgrade or two once in a while is a great choice. As a general rule, you have everything to gain to be at a higher tech level. Also, having 3 additionnal factories when sieging is a great way to put pressure. It should be also noted that is better to place them in different lines to make sure they dont get slaugthered in vain at the same spot. As an added bonus, player creeps are worth almost nothing, hence you are not giving out cash by doing so, only more pain (and a few bucks for yourself when they kill something). Teching is more profitable when there are more creeps, obviously. Creep based tanks (Guard and Ghost tank) also benefit from added power from this, as do every creep spawning objet there is.
- Keep the pressure: Attack always. And if possible, at multiple spots at same time. If they cant be everywhere, then you are attacking alone and this is bad for their buildings.
- Aim for buildings: When sieging, killing other players and creep is second to attacking buildings. The only way to break a stalemate is to destroy their infrastructure. To this end, knowing how to damage building is paramount.
1: The first way is the passive way: get in the thick of it, and a few licks from your weapon will damage buildings. It is good but not enough. Just going into the base for a few second and then retreating is not enough. Often though, when a building is nearly dead, it is worth it to combat another tank, and while some shots will go to him and the damage regenerated, the real target is behind. Once destroyed, retreat.
2: Get in the range to hit only a SINGLE tower. This is most easily done by weapon with shorter range. Approach a tower from an angle, and try to pump all your shots into it. Get a few creeps of your own before attempting this to absorb the tower hits. Using spells to target the tower is also a good thing. Usually, ignore any players around you unless they pose a direct and deadly threat, like wasting all of your creeps.
3: Use siege packs. Pump them then go for technique two as they bust it themselves. Dont forget to manually AIM them if there are multiple targets. You can also just summon them and go somewhere else while they do their thing, since it only requires you to do one single click (offensive trader tactic). Be careful NOT to summon them while in tower range, or you will have wasted a shot.
4: Use walls. The laser towers and the factories close to walls can be shot at even though you are on the other side. That way, any defender that wish to stop you will have to go around the wall, losing precious time as you pummel the building. Even creeps will have to go the long way, eventually locking on another creep as they go. You can also use this with mortars, but you will have to manually position them to do this. Put them on hold on the rigth position, and enjoy. One of the trickiest thing to counter. It almost requires a teleport. My best technique. Flyers have an easy time doing this. 1000 range weapons can target the inner lasers while outside the first wall.
- Get a factory close: One of the worst thing when sieging a base is going back to heal. Nano-repair bots are not cutting it at that point, as you need to keep applying pressure constantly. So bring one factory to bear and protect it at all cost. Building a factory near the two ruins in front of the main gate is a wise choice: not too far, not too close as to be attacked. Plus, you can build barracks around it for protection. Attack, heal, repeat. When the defender is up against their main base, bring it inside, near the inside of main entrance. When you have killed a few of the defending players and created a window of opportunity, buy as much mortars teams from the factory and spawn them on the spot. Protect them as they cut a path of destruction against any building they come across. Oftentime a single of this push can win the game, even with extremely good defenders.
- Abuse any window of oppotunity: Any errors they make is your cue to act. When half the opposing team is dead, what's to stop you from attacking "en masse"? They try to go for a CP? Bust their base while they do, you can always retake the waypoint but they cant rebuild their factories. I've won a game once where they were obsessed with the CPs, but leaved their base wide open. At the end, they had only one factory left, but they had all the CPs. Guess how quick we turned the tide...
- Suicide runs: A bit of a dangerous tactic, but can prove fatal. Indeed, what is a single (or a couple) death if you wipe 3-4 factories in the process? The trick is having a ridiculously powerful spell or item go off in the middle of the base, and staying there as long as it takes. Infernal is well suited for this, because of his ultimate. But any tank with a good firepower can achieve same effect. Put some realistic goals, like "that laser tower will not continue to hinder us after this". A more "flashy" thing is to use smart bombs. They cost 4k each, and take about 7-8 seconds to detonate, which requires you to stay alive until they are primed. If not, it will not detonate, but you will not use it. They do about 17k damage in a huge range and a good load of lag (it's the same explosion that happens at every endgame, except that it affect players). Often it is enough to wipe out any building below 15 armor. In both cases, a smoke screen generator can help you stay alive for a few precious seconds. The titan is the perfect "suicider", since it can get invincible for about 5-6 seconds. Of course, if you got a titan at this point, game's probably nearly won anyway (but not always).
- Exploder madness: The enemy is a cramped spot. It SHOULD be quite easy to multi-kill (2+), but it's not thanks to teh anti-teleporting field. My trick? Get a heli and copter. Fly close, go invisible, go over them and die as you reappear. Do it rigth, and you can create a very nice windows of opportunity to attack by removing a few defenders. Unfortunately, explosives dont do that much damage to buildings (about one fourth or fifth).
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Miscelannious tactics:
- Downgrading: This one requires guts. When drastic measures are needed, dont be afraid to sacrifice yourself. This is a TEAM GAME! If you are too weak to attack, and you are just feeding off the other team, then sell everything to your team, or if they can't (or don't want your items), sell it to force. Go to basics: Tinker. And with your cash, buy factories and upgrade creeps like a madman. And stay the hell away from battle. Then, boost towers with modules, repair and whatnot. Be the leader, as you have extra time to watch things and devise a strategy. And if they laugh at you, swallow your pride. You'll laugh at them once you win. You'd be surprised how often this technique can turn a losing game into a winning one, or make a winning one into a total annilihation.
- Offensive trader: Your team is on the offensive but you cant get an edge (or foresee a long battle)? Then get your weakest member to turn to trader (instead of tinker above). You got all the waypoints, this is called unfettered trading, he can be one of the most dangerous things in the game. Trade only in the most expensive spots. Buy factories for your team, retake the few CPs they capture, buy a siege packs and pop a few one once in a while near an undefended spot, and most important of all, upgrade creeps. It migth take a while, but if you suck at sieging, then go tradin'!
- Learn the migth of the Orbital control: 5k, 30 sec cooldown, a world of pain. Use it in the entrances of the base to pick of buildings, creeps and weak players. Good in defensive as well as offensive strategies.
- Mines are powerful: When sieging, une mines. A lot. Put them in the entrances and on the main roads near the nearest CPs. And laugh as they pop on them when trying to go out. They have so few space to go on, you'd be a fool to ignore the psychological impact of knowing that the only road is a mined one. With upgrades, huge mines can do upward of 8k damage a pop. Therefore, you can kill ANY tanks with a few well placed mines. Can be used in defense and offense.
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Enjoy! See you on the battlefield!
