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Re: The Galconite's Toolbox :: Apr 6, 2010 @ 6:53pm
sickoftrying Joined: Mar 30, 2009 Posts: 58	That sounds like a Poor Me mixed with a modified Turtle. :) I've seen it used very frequently actually... it has a fairly high success rate. However... in the example you give... Blue has 10 planets... and has had them for longer then Red will have had 11. That difference in overall total ship count will likely mean that blue still has more then red when they begin fighting. As the smallest player, you will need to help out Red, at least initially, to counter Blues overall superior numbers. I think when you attack and how you attack are key, you can just blast in there. you really have to see who has given up on the game and is just double tapping. then you can sneak up to their back row and move into the fight. Also be sure to keep an eye on the overall fight and always keep your "bulk" as i call it on the weaker side. reply
Re: The Galconite's Toolbox :: Aug 31, 2010 @ 12:52pm
the_musician Joined: Apr 2, 2009 Posts: 558 Location: the.musician.is.in (at)g	The Fulcrum Assuming Red and Blue are equal strength... The winning strategy involves owning that central planet. Both blue and red NEED to control or neutralize the central point before they can win. This kind of situation requires finesse to win rather then brute force - however brute force is required initially to lower the ship counts of both players. The goal is to use the higher production power to gain the advantage. Even 1 extra ship is enough to force a win here. Blue needs to switch to 75% and send multiple times to the central point in order to neutralize Reds forces going there. Then send 3 times to ONE of reds planets before switching back to sending to the central point. Red will either be forced to A) stop sending to the middle or B) lose a planet. The travel time these ships take is where the finesse comes in. Blue sent his ships towards reds corner planets BEFORE red could do the same. Therefore, Blue can maintain pressure on the central point while the ships are en route while which Red must pause to defend instead. You may be thinking: Players have sent too may forces to capture the central planet. The players are not in balance and the smart one can take advantage of that by sending ships to one of their main planets. This is a fallacy inherent to tactics involving proportional play. 1) for a few short seconds, one player has 1 more planet then the other and is therefore producing slightly more. 2) Whoever controls the central point has final say over where any ships go on the board. If Red sends down to blue, and blue owns the central point, Blue can swipe once from any other planet and send a support fleet which will arrive before or at the same time as Red's attack fleet. 3) If red captures the central planet and blue sends ships across the board to the other side, most people think red has only 2 choices here: either go back to defend or continue the attack down. Problem is, there's a third choice: both. As soon as red has ships start entering the central planet, send a small fleet to 1 or both of blues planets. Then send whatever remains back as reinforcements to defend. Blues ships in the air are static and not producing anything while your planets are. which means that travel time effects the outcome here as well. Reds capture of the central planet probably occurred at about the same time Blues fleets passed it on the way to the other side. Reds sending of 2 small fleets down occurs roughly as blues fleets are almost touching reds planets which are typically able to hold off blues fleets for about 1 second longer which is when Reds reinforcements sent from the central planet begin arriving. post updated on Aug 31, 2010 @ 1:02pm reply
Re: The Galconite's Toolbox :: Aug 31, 2010 @ 1:22pm
the_musician Joined: Apr 2, 2009 Posts: 558 Location: the.musician.is.in (at)g	The Pro's and Con's of using 25% or 50% Cons 1) Kill time is dramatically slower. This leads to being vultered more often by the other players, which can eliminate you from a game right off the bat. However... occasionally you can survive a vulture attack because you have more ships then they thought. Surviving is not all that likely however. 2) No matter what, you still will always needed more ships on one particular planet at any given moment for defense. So you will need to maintain constant supply lines going between your planets. Pro's 1) 1v1 games or dogfights can be a lot more fun in some cases because your far away planets could not be taken over by errant small fleets. This allows you to focus on takeovers and supply lines instead which will be the key to winning. 2) Most unskilled players use 100%. This allows a VERY easy takeover of their supply planets once their main forces were doing things elsewhere. Differences 1) At initial load of the game, don't go after the same types of planets you do when at 75% or 100%. A large 30 is off limits but a medium 20 would be fine. This leads to a generally slower start however. 2) You must occasionally switch to a higher or lower percentage at times during most games. Do not be afraid to switch to 100% when needed for defense. If you do no, you might face losing a key planet which almost always leads to defeat. Additionally, there are times where you may need to vacate a planet being attacked so as not to loose your ships 3) Watch out for highly aggressive players. Their use of concentrated force can overcome proportional play fairly easily by taking out key planets you were counting on. reply
Re: The Galconite's Toolbox :: Aug 31, 2010 @ 1:29pm
the_musician Joined: Apr 2, 2009 Posts: 558 Location: the.musician.is.in (at)g	The Double Time Hustle When you have a few large planets close together and need to attack with a large force but are worried about defending your home, this is what you can do: Switch to 75%, centralize onto one planet, and send out 75/100% out to attack in one large group. Then while those ships are in the air moving, do a select all and again centralize any remaining and produced ships. Do this a couple of times. With approximately 3 large planets and centralizing them about 6 times, you can build up a force of about 30 ships before ANY takeover fleet even arrives. Enough to successfully defend against the typical "he just sent everything so his planets are dry" takeover attempt. I find this is a good way of moving the focus of play across the board to the other side. reply
Re: The Galconite's Toolbox :: Aug 31, 2010 @ 1:39pm
the_musician Joined: Apr 2, 2009 Posts: 558 Location: the.musician.is.in (at)g	What makes a Good player Great There are two distinct players here. Those who understand the game on an instinctual level and those who are still trying to acquire those instincts. Take for example a game played amongst the top players (and I'm not talking top ranked here mind you) and you will find an EXTREME amount of coordinated well-thought out moves. FFA games amongst pro's can - and most often do - last a significant amount of time longer then games with non-pros. This is due almost exclusively to using strategy and tactics on an instinctual level of game play. Those who understand how to win a game, understand that emotional play has its place as well. People don't like to attack the biggest player, or try to defend instead of attack or attack instead of defend, or attack the wrong player at the wrong time or not keep track of the whole board at once or the state of play of all players... these are all things pros take care of and correct for as a matter of fact during their games. Add the game mechanics on top of all those various emotional incentives, and you have a mess of conflicting thoughts. This is where the line between being good at Galcon and being Great at it is drawn. Those who can respond to the game mechanics AND the emotional mechanics at the same time... usually win. reply
Re: The Galconite's Toolbox :: Aug 31, 2010 @ 1:50pm
the_musician Joined: Apr 2, 2009 Posts: 558 Location: the.musician.is.in (at)g	How to avoid elimination when being double teamed in 2v2 Era is looking at a combined super punch, where 2 players each are sending 100% to both of his planets. The ONLY way to survive that kind of attack is to move. period. Era could have waited and absorbed the punch, but only if ipcress were to send 100% of all his forces to support Era in a massive die off. When the two teams send everything they have into 1 or 2 planets for a massive die off, the team which can send more ships faster usually ends up winning because they have the momentum and get to decide the best targets to try for. If you are defending against the oncoming hoard you are the one pinned down and unable to move, while their home planets are producing more ships which can be used to grab more planets around them. In order to survive being double teamed like this, Era needs to switch to 25% send out multiple smaller fleets to each of their planets, capturing their production capacity and pinning THEM into the corner, next to ipcress who can then begin defending against them instead. post updated on Aug 31, 2010 @ 1:50pm reply
Re: The Galconite's Toolbox :: Aug 31, 2010 @ 1:58pm
the_musician Joined: Apr 2, 2009 Posts: 558 Location: the.musician.is.in (at)g	In 2v2, do you target the Weaker partner or the Stronger one? If your battling a team with one strong player and one weak player, which do you target first? The answer depends on just exactly HOW weak the weakest player really is. In 2v2 games, the goal is to get rid of the weakest player FIRST and take over their production capacity. Not the strongest player... as you might do in FFA mode. In 2v2, the weakest players are ironically the strongest, as they are the game changers on the board. 95% of the time, a 2 against 1 fight will result in the 2 players winning. For this reason alone, the weakest player must be eliminated first. And quickly. If however, that weak player is marginally ok, and the strong player is Grand Admiral level... you might want to take out the strong player first and hope for the best against the weaker one. :) reply
Re: The Galconite's Toolbox :: Aug 31, 2010 @ 2:14pm
the_musician Joined: Apr 2, 2009 Posts: 558 Location: the.musician.is.in (at)g	A 2v2 Case Study: Capture Early or Capture Later? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spwYV75PEtM In most cases, Tinny (as panda.pear in the vid) immediately captures a planet right next to him at game start. This serves as a boosted production for defensive use while he sent out ships for attack. Odessa sends out ships immediately to other places on the board and THEN only grabs a secondary planet next to him. At faster speeds like this vid shows, the difference in production/ship count between early captures and later captures are noticeable. post updated on Aug 31, 2010 @ 2:27pm reply
Re: The Galconite's Toolbox :: Aug 31, 2010 @ 2:31pm
the_musician Joined: Apr 2, 2009 Posts: 558 Location: the.musician.is.in (at)g	Using Neutrals to your Advantage in 2v2 One thing you may notice from this screen shot are the planets in between targets. For example, there are a significant number of planets "protecting" red from immediate take over. Meaning Greens ships will use an average of 1 to 3 seconds MORE time to take over that red planet then it normally would have on a straight shot. When your in Red's position, use that to your advantage. Red can safely send out MORE ships from his fairly protected home planet. Several options exist when in this position: 1) If your surrounded by high cost neutrals, send out everything to help your partner. If your up against smart players, they will most likely ignore your lonely planet during initial moves due to it being "hard to get too". 2) Use it as a trap (as in how InionzedFire used them in this case). The goal being to thoroughly occupy 1 of your enemies time and ships in a useless endeavor. IF they send a large fleet down to take you, immediately send 25% up to their home, 50% to your ally, and 50% to the other enemy home. By the time their large fleet arrives and takes over your home, the balance of power will have shifted in your favor and Blue will be dead. 3) Use them as false targets. In this case, the large 17 planet just above Red's home would make a perfect lightning rod for enemy ships. Send 50% up to that one capturing it, then from that send 100% of whats remaining to help your ally. That now red planet poses to big of a threat to your enemies because its so close... and also so empty. In my experience, enemies will almost always take the bait. The end result is that you force your enemies ships down the map towards your side, and AWAY FROM YOUR PARTNER... who now has the necessary time and support ships to consolidate their position. reply
Re: The Galconite's Toolbox :: Aug 31, 2010 @ 2:48pm
the_musician Joined: Apr 2, 2009 Posts: 558 Location: the.musician.is.in (at)g	Knowing when to send ALL in 2v2 when everyone goes crashing into the cluster, you lose control of the game and it's just a gamble as to who wins. It is a false assumption that whoever is defending a cluster is pinned down and unable to move. White, if given enough support ships from Green, will be able to successfully defend BOTH Red and Blue advances. Here is why: White is BETWEEN Blue and Red and in the MIDDLE of the screen. White only has to withstand enough ship attrition to stay alive, and could easily afford to send a small attack fleet over to Reds home to acquire it (possibly from the bottom left most planet where ships aren't heading towards). Blue meanwhile will be busy dealing with Greens remaining ships and so will NOT be able to grab any more planets in the north. In the screen capture we are all talking about, if a massive ship die off occurs in the SW, whoever ends up controlling the bottom half of the screen wins the game. Period. No ifs and or buts. Ship Concentration into the SW area is vital to winning this game. You simply can not avoid it. If a ship die off does NOT occur there, White will have enough production within 2 seconds to overpower EITHER Red OR Blue. The concept here is this: defend your better position while reducing your enemies ability to acquire their own good position. Your working two fronts. The main front is Defense, the secondary front is Threat Management. Green's home planet in the top right corner is unable to be effective in this game. Therefore, sending the majority of his ships down to help capture the stronger lower half of the board is the correct move. reply
Re: The Galconite's Toolbox :: Aug 31, 2010 @ 2:56pm
the_musician Joined: Apr 2, 2009 Posts: 558 Location: the.musician.is.in (at)g	Ship Attrition & Ship Production To win at Galcon, you must to keep control of both Ship Attrition as well as Ship Production. The below scenario will showcase how Ship Attrition works along side Ship Production in both the aggressive and defensive positions. In a typical 1v1 scenario, which many people can argue 2v2 is in the early stages of a game, increasing your production rate has more of an effect on the outcome then exchanging ships in a slow controlled fashion does. For this reason alone, exploiting even the slightest difference in production power can be worth the 100% rush approach on occasion. In this example scenario, here is how each player would use this to their advantage: Yellow: say that second planet of theirs cost 8 ships. Capturing it will almost guarantee that Red will try to take it from yellow and a battle ensues. Red will fail in gaining ground against Yellow in every single scenario (assuming yellow knows what the hell he's doing) without a larger then 25 ship reinforcement fleet from White. Period. This essentially creates a production difference between the parties, which, unless successfully countered by a superior sized fleet, OR a reduction of that difference through capturing a different large planet of their own... will eventually win the game. Yes, even after that 25 ship reinforcement fleet has arrived, Yellow can defend his two planets successfully through proper ship manipulation. It has been done many times and yes it is extremely close, but the odds are in Yellows favor due to the production differences. 3 larges can produce 15 ships by the time whites reinforcements arrive, it takes 1 of the 3 back without any fight (yellow sends out all ships from it to their second planet just prior to whites capture) but then White has to resend those ships towards Yellow. And by the time those ships arrive at Yellows planet, the 2 remaining larges have bumped Yellows ship count up to 25 again, making it defensible via ship attrition. Red: has two choices in this scenario. Either stand pat and try to take Yellows assault without dyeing so that the production difference will loose out once reinforcements arrive (remember it takes 3 larges to make that work) OR launch a 50% harrying fleet for later use, and possibly another 50% down south to support Whites takeover of the bottom half, before letting Yellow capture their planet. (hopefully White will get the hint and recall their 25 ship support fleet) Yellow will have the highest production rate of all players on the board at that point, but with your 50 ship fleet hovering around his planets, will be unable to effectively USE that advantage for roughly 15 seconds. White will have won down south by that time and can then begin to launch an effective assault against Yellow. The combination of Reds 50 ship harassing fleet which can take advantage of Yellows defensive ship shuttling, and Whites longer distance sustained assault which will drain Yellows ship count overall, can eventually win the game. Ship Attrition is a vital tool in any game and is utilized by controlling by the speed at which it is done. There are cases where extremely fast attrition can be very beneficial, but usually only when a Ship Production difference is in your favor. reply
Re: The Galconite's Toolbox :: Aug 31, 2010 @ 2:59pm
the_musician Joined: Apr 2, 2009 Posts: 558 Location: the.musician.is.in (at)g	Capture Time and how it effects the game "Time" is the factor most people forgot about when strategizing. To many people tend to think simply in terms of planets production and ships, but neglect the time factors involved. Making an opponent loose time in any rapid engagement, equates directly to a greater chance of winning against them. Many people here talk about being highly efficient at capturing - i.e. using only the smallest number of ships required to capture a planet, never more then that - but fail to understand that speed of capture ALSO plays a pivotal role in any game. In many cases, capture speed can overcome efficient ship movements and take victory. Here is a test all of you can do to see for yourselves how this effects outcomes. Start a single player game, find 1 single neutral planet near your home which has a moderate cost (in the 20's maybe) and send 25% at it... count how long it takes to capture. Now restart the game with the same map as before and send 100% at it. At the 100% setting, capture is noticeably faster then at the 25% setting. By capturing quickly and repetitively, good players can gain several full seconds of production time over their opponents. In many cases, that can trump efficient ship handling. reply
Re: The Galconite's Toolbox :: Sep 1, 2010 @ 8:30pm
anon Joined: Aug 31, 2009 Posts: 1 Location: Everywhere and Nowhere	I like these. reply