Before you even spawn, you gotta know few things:
1. How many geysers are there and where are they located? Situation on this map is next: 5 geysers on north, 4 on west, 4 on south, 5 on east and 2 in the center.
2. How many scrap is there and where is located? Look at the pic, every green square stands for 20 scrap. So, north 20+20+100, west 20+20+40, south, 20+20+100, east 20+20+20+20 and center 20+20+20+20.
3. Where is each players spawn? Host is usually on nav 1, 2nd player is on nav 2, 3rd and 4th player are on navs 3 and 4. sometimes is host on nav 2, 2nd player on nav 1 and so on. The important thing is that if only two players are in the game their spawns are for sure on navs 1 and 2.
4. Which enemy units you can destroy and let your opponent to collect scrap from, and which you can't? Only few units\buildings are not giving extra scrap when destroyed, and those you gotta destroy whenever you get a chance. For others you gotta be careful when you destroy them, because you gotta collect after, so there's no point in destroying those if you are not able to collect that scrap. You gotta always kill enemies's scavs (especially those heading home), minelayers, barracks, walkers and, of course, all upgraded units.
5. You gotta know against who are you playing. Lot of players are using aliases, but if you play strat on regular bases you can tell after just a few minutes who's on the otehr side. It is very important to know what are your opponent's usual tactics, what are his favorit units etc.
6. We all know that human player's ship can climb even on highest mountain, so your base is not secure if you guard just the regular entrance. When you play against lame players be prepared for their "over the top“ attack on your rec. But when you play against honest players, it is good to know paths on map which are accessible for AI, because then you can focus your defensive\offensive strategy on just those places and play this game in the way it was programmed to be played. I marked those places with navs 1-10 (path through the middle, navs 9 and 10, is rarely used). So, focus yourself on those 8 places, prepare your attacks through those checkpoints and expect attacks from those checkpoints.
7. Distances in meters from–to certain places. If the game gets into phase when you gotta attack strongly defended base with howies, it is good to know how far can they reach. There's too many geysers on this map for me to describe all good howie places, but when playing this map over and over try to memorize all those experiences and at some point you will get a feeling where's the right place to put your howies and build your outpost. I hate when I'm preparing to attack someone, build everything necessary and then I realize, that I'm out of range or that I'm facing E-W.
8. Special things about this map: middle contains 6 repairs, and 4 ammo which will not respawn.
So, when you know all this, you are ready to spawn... On a map for 4 players and with 20 geysers it is hard to tell you what exactly to do, because there are dozen possibillities... maybe it's easier to tell you what not to do... Anyway, I'll try with a little bit of both... Wherever your spawn is and no matter how many players are in the game, you need to get at least some of that north or south 100 scrap pile. Those 2 places are special because with silo and few scavs you can very quickly collect all 100 pieces. If only one players gets in possession of the whole 100 scrap pile he will have scrap supremacy. So if 2 players are in the game, one should get north 100, other south 100 and then fight for the rest. When 3 players, 2 will fight for 100, 3rd will collect in the peace, if 4 players everybody fights for his quarter...
Now, there are 3 possibilities for doing that: you can deploy rec on south (or north), on east (or west) or in the center. Deploying rec in the middle is the less secure option, but if nobody attacks you in the begining it's the fastest option. You can easily start with 5 scavs because scrap is near the geyser, then silo on 100 scrap pile and after that moving to somewhere safe. Staying in the center is not an option, because geysers are far from each other, and we need 2 close geysers for rec and fac.
When deploying rec in the south (north) or in the east (west) you gotta first build 2 scavs and a constructor and take them to the plateau, where you build silo. Then you can move your rec somewhere else if necessary.
For unexperienced players I would suggest building of a base on east or west. When deployed there you are only open from 2 sides. If you stay on north or south you have to watch on 3 sides. With silo and few scavs on one place and your base on other, you are suppose to fast collect enough scrap for a decent fight...
If someone has any question about this (or any other) map I will gladly answer. Till then, good luck to you all,
Mr. Spock
Mr. Spock
