I can't find the info that state what units are superior to others. Maybe I misread somewhere but I thought certain units had baseline advantages vs other and then weapon choice can make that gap even larger.





How to use Vaulter Calvary effectively? They get counter attacked by everything( even units that are 1 shot) and having them as anti air is laughable when it always ends in a suicide run. I find myself not even wanting to use their charge bonus as it usually sacrifices more health than the damage increase I get. Titan has always seemed a better investment right now.



Do vaulters only focus on two resources? I have been having a lot of good returns on science and dust rush vs science and construction rush. Construction slows down in age 3 while dust seems to keep up until age 4. Tech bonus seems like such a double edged sword though. I find myself rushing to ages where I have no were near the resources to back up my discoveries. I haven't played enough to know for sure I am probably missing something.





Is there anyway to get an influx of strategic resources without constantly conquering cities. I am trying to keep a small cluster of 2-3 cities with a big high tech armory protecting them. I don't want to swarm the whole map to advance I would rather have a small community holed up with a really small but highly geared army.



Does initiative only effect turn order or does it effect how many squares you can move during combat as

well?



Is defense a flat 1 for 1 or is does it have a hidden % modifier per defense point?

A few more play sessions and I am fairly sure the Vaulter Calvary is safe to flat out skip. You can get to age to titans fairly quickly and they provide far more bang for their buck. By age 3 titans can be brought to doing 90-100+ damage in full titan or glass steel. Going 4 titans and 2 ranged or 2 titans 2 assimilated and 2 range seems to be the best mix so far. 2 armies can be afforded at age 3 fully equipped.



Vaulters best 2 resources seem to be science and dust. They sync very well together with water cities and load a lot of bonus jointly doing so. Construction felt like a waste of time for the effort put forth and trying to balance all 3 even more so. Science and dust rush after you've secured both food resurces lets you buy anything from the market and get 2 solid armies set up.





The market is how you secure more outside resources instead of constantly conquering or city building.



Initiative looks like it only effects in combat attack order.



Defense is confusing at first I though it was flat but then the bonuses vs the attack didn't match up.



I'm playing a lot more Vaulter I still need to figure out how secure titanium regularly as i prefer it's ability to allow massive crits regularly vs glass steels speed.

I think Dawn Officers can be used as scouts, as they have better speed than Marines and Titans. And speed is the only unit's stat, that cannot be improved with armour (only with hero's skill or empire plan; correct me, if i'm wrong).



And for the effective army: for now (vs AI), you can just go for mass Marines (IMHO). Titans are good, but without some kind of "Rampart aura" they are not so good to protect other units.

All you need, is: equip them with bows (instead of crossbows; glass stell bows are best choice), level up your hero until he gets an ability "+1 range to all ranged units"level ups (starter hero have it) and level up soldiers in your main army (find a farming point, where enemy AI always sent his forces). After a numer of level ups, soldiers stats are doubled, in compare to their basic lvl 1 statistics.



With this type of army you can face an army almost 3 or 4 times bigger than your, and wipe them out withous loosing a single unit. But there is one minus in this tactics: it is boring

I have been actually able to use the 4 speed units to handle the scouting do to my hero path consisting of Indiana bones and then speed upgrades. they get to 8 and my hero squad gets to 10. My scouting is finished within the first 30-40 turns anyway. I secure a perimeter in a fairly large circle and call it at that.



I am still working on efficiency in building. I have found this game easier to manage every 20 turns than going 5-10 turns in. First 20 is food, second 40 is science and dust, 60 2-3 full armies, 80 expansions 2nd city, dust and full military outfitting, 100 more dust and market control and 2nd hero army. That's about as far as I've gotten so far for a concentrated plan. There is still some tweaking and power turn thing I need to work on for reputation. I don't know how fast reputation scales in cost or luxury resources yet.



Titans while slow defenders are very hard to get around when there are 4 of them. Actually with the way the battle fields show up it has been very easy to make a shield wall of 4 titans in one corner of the map and just huddle your range behind it.

I am actually finding my Dawn Officers to be surprisingly useful. By the time I equip them with second level iron two-handed axes they can dish out a lot of damage. I usually set them up on the edge of my formation and send them rushing for enemy archers and I've had pretty good success with that. So for me at least they are working as cavalry are intended to by being lightning fast early flankers rather than meat shields.

Initiative is actually a very good stat. Especially once they add the feature to issue commands every turns. High initiative let's you decide when and where your forces clash on the battlefield. You can choose more defensible terrain and attack important enemy units denying them further action this turn. Also your ranged can get more shots in and avoid melee for longer.

As the game stands now I can't say initiative has been anymore powerful than deciding turn order. If it had a hand in deciding who gets retribution damage from attacking or when this feature is actually implemented that lets you move every turn it may become more meaningful.

As it stands to me going first is not a big deal especially with the movement option before the ready phase. Not that it is hard to gain the initiative advantage as the game stands. I go 4 titan 2 marine and 1 hero. The shield wall put up by titans is almost impossible to get around. Using range 4 bows and a range 5 hero allows them with proper positioning to get 2-3 hits off before attack order would begin to matter, which luckily is just enough time to readjust if need be.



Honestly I can't try to argue with future improvements vs what is happening right now. My play experience has been that proper movement phase positioning determines the outcome of a battle far more than who strikes first.

I don't think we can say we are mastering the intricacies of this system vs an AI that deploys randomly, targets randomly and always attacks. Tactics like sitting in a corner and shooting units that blunder into missile range aren't going to fly vs an intelligent opponent...



Moving first is always going to be an advantage and I think it will become more apparent as the multiplayer is introduced. That said, having an initiative that is 10 better than your opponent is no better that 1, so over-investing will be a waste...

I do not believe I asserted to mastering anything. However as it stands MY gameplay experience has shown very little if any use from initiative outside of turn order which has again had very little impact on my battles. When mechanics change and AI is made smarter I may reevaluate my argument but as of now my opinion stands.



Honestly I believe this whole back and forth about initiative has detracted largely from the entirety of the thread. I don't find initiative all that great. Awesome if you do. I don't feel that way and I'm tired of talking about it.