KingJMobile
Active Member
A Brief Introduction
This is my journal guide for fighting the Continent Map to the Space Ages as early as the Industrial Age, in fact (though I am in the Progressive Era). In this journal guide, I will state information and theoretical calculations to work out the costs and effectiveness of all these strategies.First things first, if you haven’t already, check out Uberhelp’s Higher Era Units guide. If you can’t do that, then you are most definitely not ready for the challenges ahead.
Now, you might be wondering: why the hell am I even doing this? Mainly to get expansions, which is undoubtedly one of the most valuable things in FoE. My other reasons are that I just want to get a taste of all the Space Age units (if possible) and try something more challenging with my units (ever since GE level 4 has become a cakewalk).
Army Boosts and Preparation
Before we start, here is my current status:- I am in Progressive Era, and I have acquired all possible higher-era units from quests (explained below).
- I have around 220 million coins and 260 million supplies which should be sufficient for scouting and expansion costs.
- I also have a 500-600% boost in attack and defense. This will likely increase. As much as I would like to increase my attack%, it would be more useful to increase my defense%, particularly as the AI does not target rogues first, I will be expecting to take a lot of damage. See the Knowledge is Power Part to understand why.
- I am currently in Part 1 of the Virtual Future Map. I will be taking the Continent Map nice and slowly.
- I have not saved any goods for negotiations. I will be fighting the entire way.
Army Setup with Units of Interest
The main 3 Units we will be using in the continent are Hover Tanks, Turturrets, and Combat Drones. We may also use Sub Cruisers, Hydroelectric Eels, and Mantas. The standard army combination will be 1 unit with 7 rogues, with an exception for the Turturrets and Rail Guns in some cases (4+4 or 4+2+2).Hover Tanks: These will be the go-to unit that we’ll be using to push for most of our fights. Stealth on Plains already makes anything without Blast or Power Shot completely short work for the Hover Tank, not to mention their rather long range too. Rogues will most likely be evenly converted as they have Stealth on the first tile too. In addition, its Force Field ability is very strong as well. Melee and Dragon Breath units may pose a slight risk to them. Its biggest fear is anything with Blast or Power Shot and can attack the Hover Tank before the Hover Tank can move.
Turturrets: Turturrets work very nicely with their Mortar ability. (It’s a pity you can’t get Rocket Troops instead). As far as they are concerned, anything with Flying or Stealth or can move before them and attack them on the first turn is a risk to them. Against other units, however, the Turturret can be used in numbers to maximize their Mortar effect. As an artillery unit, their long-range is extremely useful.
Combat Drones: The Combat Drone will be our Flying unit here. They have a nice attack, but they are limited by their rather low defense. Its movement and range are amazing, and they will serve as our solution for artillery units. They do struggle against other fast units that can reach them on the first turn, however, and they are rather weak against other units too; mainly due to their low defense.
Hydroelectric Eel: The Hydroelectric Eel is better than the Combat Drone with its better defense and very high initiative (allowing them to move out of the way before other units can attack them). It falls quite short, however, as they are not Flying, so they are vulnerable to artillery, and as bushes are non-existent past the Virtual Future, it will lose its Stealth advantage. In the Space Age Venus, these will replace the Combat Drone as the Power Dragon will be able to attack Flying units anyway.
Sub Cruiser/Manta: These two are renowned for their Contact ability. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses, though. The Sub Cruiser has a longer range at the cost of a lower initiative and attack and defense whereas the Manta, despite its smaller range, has better initiative and attack and defense. Both of them are not as useful, given that their Contact is less useful when the AI doesn’t target rogues first.
As a final note, my calculations will not always be exact, but you should have an approximate idea of what to achieve. Note that whilst the theoretical boosts needed for a comfortable fight are rather high, you can still do it with lower boosts (just not as easily).
Knowledge is Power
Before we even begin, we must understand how AI will work:- The AI will usually target units closest to it first, be it a rogue or any other unit.
- The AI may focus fire on particular units (should they be in closest or close proximity with other units in a clump).
- The AI is lazy – it will not move for as long as there are units within their attacking range. This is how I sometimes manage to take out Flying units using untransformed rogues (when I am using Turturrets).
- There is an exception to the way the AI controls Blast units: it will try to take advantage of its Blast attack bonus by moving forward and with that, it may then focus fire on specific units (making them rather painful).
Here are good tactics to develop:
- Manually fight: do not be tempted to auto-battle unless you are ready to expect losses or know that the enemy cannot make a stand against you. Take your time; there is no rush needed.
- Use the rogue in, unit out strategy. When a rogue gets transformed, pull it back and slightly push your other rogues on or near its position to ensure as many rogues are transformed as possible.
- Remember to keep your real unit behind the rogue lines for extra safety. You may even shove it in the corner for the fight if needed.
Check out this article to understand how hit points work. The key thing that severely matters is not the number of hit points of damage you deal or take; it’s about how many attacks are needed for you to kill the enemy and for the enemy to kill you. This is by far the reason why extra attack is not as useful, whereas defense will matter most importantly here. You will never have an attack ludicrous enough to get you one-hit kills, whereas even taking from 3-5 to 2-4 or even 1-4 damage will make all the difference in the ease of the fights.
Whilst in other aspects of the game, such as using Hover Tanks or Turturrets in GBG, where attack% is marginally more useful, the Continent Map will always put pressure on your defense. As many players go for attack% over defense%, it is no surprise that they find themselves stuck one way or the other.
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