You must sign in to post. | Defend the Mega-Cluster!!! :: Mar 14, 2007 @ 12:08am |
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 nannoJoined: Nov 30, 2006
Posts: 336
Location: Colorado | In almost every game of Galcon there is at least one big cluster on the screen. And often there is a Mega-Cluster that one person will be lucky enough to spawn in. This person has the obvious advantage in the game. But unfortunately this advantage is often lost because of a lack of proper defense. When the Mega-Cluster is attacked, rather than stand and defend their planets, the owner will often send all their ships out in a retaliatory strike against the offender(s). Meanwhile they've lost control of the Mega-Cluster. They may retake it, but they've suffered so much loss of production that they have become an easy target.
Even worse, many people withdraw their entire army to a single back planet at the first sign of attack, effectively giving away their awesome position. Never underestimate the power of the Mega-Cluster! Unless you are attacked by everyone at once, if you simply defend your Mega-Cluster, hanging onto it for all it's worth, you can often completely devastate the armies of your attackers. Then you can send a few ships from a few planets and take over your exhausted neighbors, thus gaining an entire side of the board in one fell swoop. This method also keeps your whole army in one place. If send ships to the opposite side of the board, your neighbors may still not be able to crush you entirely, but they will certainly take advantage and you'll be left with two or more small armies stranded on opposite sides of the screen where they're hard to control. If at all possible, DEFEND THE MEGA-CLUSTER!!!
If you want to take over your smaller neighbors, one of the best ways to do it is to get them to attack you instead of you attacking them. That way you suffer no loss of production while they do. Send a small percentage of your ships out to attack them, but send them from all your planets. This looks very impressive and is likely to lure them in on the impression that you're empty. Hopefully they will send all their ships into your well-defended cluster. Meanwhile your small army will have taken over their planets and you may end up with half the board. | | Re: Defend the Mega-Cluster!!! :: Apr 16, 2007 @ 6:47pm |
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 carnJoined: Dec 16, 2006
Posts: 74
Location: LA | Games with more than two players are rarely won by getting a good starting position and then fighting everyone until you win. Your Mega-Cluster might give you a solid advantage in the short term, but it throws you off the path of victory. I mean, in games with good players, almost every victory comes from a player who was behind at many points in the game, possibly the entire game until the very end. It does no good to be big because then you're attacked by multiple opponents. If you try to defend you'll either be completely eliminated or substantially smaller.
So what is a Mega-Cluster good for?
Basically this: If you spawn in a Mega-Cluster, then you get a "kill one person you hate playing with for free" card. When people attack you, just kill one opponent then move off to the side. The real trick to winning in the end is knowing who you can beat in a one - one match, or which two opponents you generally beat in a three-way ffa. Then its a matter of eliminating the more difficult opponents early when the opportunity arises. People will take notice if you own 40% of the production, but they generally won't notice you quietly eliminate all but the worst players in the game. | | Re: Defend the Mega-Cluster!!! :: Apr 16, 2007 @ 8:29pm |
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nanno Joined: Nov 30, 2006
Posts: 336
Location: Colorado | You're absolutely right Carn. However, I made that post after seeing game after game lost in a few days because people simply would not defend a great position. They would withdraw 100% of their ships at the slightest sign of attack, even when all the other players were currently battling over a few measley planets at the far end of the screen. Instead of taking out 1 or 2 small neighbors while everyone else was busy, the mega-cluster person would flee at the slightest provocation and promptly lose. Naturally defending does not work when everyone else gangs up on you at once, but if you have most of the production and all your neighbors are fighting eachother you're a shoo-in for winner unless you give away your planets for free, which was what I was seeing alot of on the day I made that post. I also won alot of games that day by taking over the mega-cluster. But you're right--a big player makes themselves a target, and if their opponents work together to take them out then defending the mega-cluster is not a good strategy. | | Re: Defend the Mega-Cluster!!! :: May 15, 2007 @ 9:04pm |
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 rafsoakenJoined: May 14, 2007
Posts: 3 | just my two cents:
If you abandon your mega-cluster, make sure that you do so orderly. Means that you probably want to open first the side that is adjacent to the weaker opponent, then the other - you should really manage to start a fight over this cluster between the other players to keep a certain advantage from the production it gave you beforehand.
(you can do so too by just not drawing a 100 percent and helping the weaker then.. it'll pay) | | Re: Defend the Mega-Cluster!!! :: Mar 21, 2008 @ 7:30pm |
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 tosJoined: Aug 23, 2007
Posts: 10
Location: Orbiting our primary in the cold vacuum of space somewhere between 2nd and 3rd | I was actually thinking about this the other day while being attacked by a starter from a "megacluster" out of only three players, he had the obvious huge advantage... spread into the cluster, and then evacuated their entire fleet to attack my puny two planets....
And i thought !!! good swap, and took his cluster :D |
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