Gonna make this guide assuming you don't boost (even blues) and that you're not playing with active boosters either.
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Basic Startup
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Step 1 - When you first make your colony, go out of newbie protection immediately and skip the tutorial. It does not matter if you get conquered, it does not matter if you have your crystal stolen, just be patient
Step 2 - Go as high in farm level (you can make it to level 4 on all but 3tick worlds) as you can in the first tick because you get an influx of workers the tick after. Get to metal and oil level 3 with your startup resources also.
Step 3 - After these structures are completed and you get your influx of workers after the tick passes, you should have around 850 metal and 950 oil. You will be earning around 60 metal and 36 oil per tick. In 20 ticks you can go to level 4 metal.
Step 4 - Although it might be tempting to just max the resource structures before getting farm level 5, I strongly recommend that after getting metal level 4 that you wait until you can build farm level 5. In the long run, the workers will be more important. The key to this strategy is to have the best base income before you begin attacking people.
Step 5 - When you have level 5 farm, next is oil level 4, then metal level 5, then oil level 5. After this, get a few levels in the energy structure to get you started.
Ste 6 - Build a barracks so you can make infantry. Even though you may select a different chassis (chassis will be explained later) when you're fully setup, you should start with infantry to grab some newbie conquers.
Step 7 - Focus on getting the ranged structure done after you have the barracks completed.
Step 8 (edited into guide) - As Seth pointed out, you should either have an alliance right from the start or be looking for a decent one right away. You will not be able to expand your network indefinitely (due to outpost upkeep) and you certainly won't be able to defend it on your own. Alliance section added below.
After you've followed these 8 steps, you are just about ready to start your domination. Ensure that you have a few squads assembled or your alliance is able to defend you before you rebel if your conquerer is relatively close.
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Your army
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You go wrong here, you might as well just change server because you could be wiped quite easily if you don't build your army correctly.
#1 - Armor to Range ratio. No matter what chassis you choose, you should have 66.67% range and 33.33% armor. In relation to individual chassis, this ratio equates to: Infantry = 20range 10 arm (You could go to 21/9 or 22/8, but for this scenario we'll keep it at the base). Vehicles = 10 range, 5 arm. Tanks = 7range, 3arm.
**** Here is an important point (just edited after I saw a few other guides) DO NOT BUILD DAMAGE! In any fight, you should be aiming to wipe your enemy in the first round.*****
#2 - Stick to one chassis ONLY! This is a crucial point. Ideally you want everyone in your alliance to only use the same chassis. If you are infantry and the rest of your alliance are tanks, when you fight together, your army will probably be wiped in a fight with any decent build. This is because your alliance mate's armor will protect the other tank guys in the alliance also, whereas your poor grunts will just have whatever armor you've built yourself.
#3 - Don't waste scans. Energy is a precious commodity when you start conquering, so if you see a guy that just came out of protection, check his statistics first. If he has zero units recruited, just go at him with any random unit you have lying around.
#4 - Expand, expand, expand. You will very quickly run out of conquers to get in your area so you will need to expand your horizons. Get the gate + radar structures completed and start throwing them up in strategic areas so that you can snap up conquers within a few ticks. One thing you should note though is that it is always a good idea to relocate conquers close to your colony. They will want revenge at some point and you don't want them to be within 5tick when your army is 12ticks away!
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Alliances
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Firstly, a good gauge of how active an alliance is is generally their score per player. Don't just look for the highest alliance with a slot open because there are often good players that setup on a world with like 4 of their closest BD mates and see can they do something. I would much rather join an alliance of 5 players with a score of 4k than join an alliance of 10 with a score of 6k. This is because number of alliance members don't win wars....it's the number of ACTIVE alliance members that do that
Go through the alliance rankings and see who you think you would like to join. After you've found a potential alliance, message the leader. Please note, as a leader, there are always tons of people wanting to join your alliance, so think of the message you are sending as a kind of 'job application' and tell them WHY the leader should let you join. A well written explanation of your skills will grab their attention for sure if they are looking for players.
After you get in:
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There are a few key points to a successful alliance that you need to be aware of.
1 - Talk to each other when you're online.
I cannot stress how important this is. If the people in your alliance don't have a clue who you are, why would they care if your outpost gets taken or if your colony is under attack?
2 - Help expand.
Gates and radars are of vital importance when building a successful alliance so EVERYONE must do their part. When I lead an alliance, a rule I always stress is that the number of outposts a player has captured (visible in stats) has a direct correlation to the amount of work that player puts in for the alliance. Capturing Mines + Wells is also a top priority for any alliance that hopes to win.
3 - Don't be greedy.
Here's something that a lot of people (even veterans) don't seem to understand. Crystals do indeed boost your individual score, but the overall bonus gained from crystals is shared among your alliance. There is no need to argue over who gets what in relation to this. Also, and I cannot emphasize this point strongly enough...If an alliance mate or a friendly alliance is attacking a target, do NOT try to overpower them and get it for yourself! This leads to argumentsvery quickly within the alliance and can cause the breakdown of relations with friendly alliances.
4 - Coordination.
In times of war, you will need to work with everyone in your alliance to win against decent alliances. General tactics involve splitting your alliance into teams and assigning them to specific areas to take control over. to reduce the risk when advancing, I generally recommend advancing using squads of spam (squads with just 1/2 units in them) and following with your main army. This enables you to grab all empty outposts and even if some die, you get a battle report of what troops are on the outposts so you can wipe them when your main force arrives.
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That's all I can think of at the mo. As always, if I left anything out, feel free to let me know and I'll edit as needed
Trolls will be shot on sight...repeatedly
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