Level 11 Vicious Ones

[xtpd]

I'm new to this game and I've been enjoying it a lot. However, I seem to be stuck at Level 11. No matter what course of action I take, it seems I'm swarmed and killed in relative short order. I've tried to build up on a couple of asteroids, I've tried expand, I've planted flowers to get laser mines, but all to no avail. I'm not ready or willing to give up, but would appreciate any suggestions. What strategies have others tried? I can't believe I was able to progress with ease to this level only to be stymied.

Thanks.

[annikk.exe]

Hi and welcome.  :>  Have you tried waiting until the invaders are on route, and then counter-invading the asteroid they departed from? :>

[xtpd]

Thanks for the welcome. I have tried what you have suggested. I made a pretty good attempt last night, but in the end I could muster enough to cinch victory. What seemed strange to me, though, was that although I had managed to colonize several asteroids, only one produced a flower. Therefore, at any given time, I had a single laser mine. The other seedling colonies had multiple. I'm surprised I managed as long as I did!

At this point, I think if I could get more asteroids to produce flowers so that I could have more than one laser mine at a time, I'd have a reasonable chance. Also, I think, for now I prefer the slower pace of the game. If there are any tips on how to encourage flower growth, that would be appreciated. Just has a note, i had colonized asteroids with reasonably high core energy - at least the core energy was higher than that of "enemy" seedling colonies.

[annikk.exe]

Right, just re-played this level and it's not the one I thought it was so ignore the advice above.


At the start of the game, waste no time.  Fill out your second asteroid with Dyson trees.  Then send 1 seedling to each nearby asteroid to scout, then send them home again.


Colonise the empty asteroids first.  Then attack the least-defended nearby asteroids and colonise them too.  You should always build Dyson trees on all of your asteroids unless you have a very good reason not to (see next point)

If you get a flower and don't have a defence tree for it, plant one when you next capture an asteroid.  Don't plant defence trees in expectation of getting a flower later.

When it comes to attacking asteroids with lots of trees or a mine on them, wait until you have a swarm of at least 50 seedlings before attempting it.  Attacking with a small force is just throwing those seedlings away.

Be sure to constantly move your newly spawned seedlings up to the front line.  Try to keep your seedlings in 1 big swarm - they are safer together in large numbers.

Use your mines effectively.  You can send them to asteroids with some enemies orbiting, to clear out the enemies just before your seedlings arrive.

Apart from that, there's really not much to say - just swarm up, attack when you have an army, capture asteroids...win.  :>

[xtpd]

Thanks for the helpful response. I haven't had a lot of time to give different strategies a try this week, but I'm hoping I'll have some opportunity coming up. As I mentioned in my last point, when I have played this level I'm only getting one flower, regardless of the number of asteroids I have. Is this a bug or am I not doing enough to "nurture" my asteroids.

Really appreciate the help. Despite my continued failed attempts, I am enjoying the game.

[annikk.exe]

Flowers have a % chance to spawn on a Dyson Tree.  Each Dyson Tree gets one short at creating a flower - either it will or it won't.

For lots of flowers, get lots of Dyson Trees.  :>


You could easily beat this level without getting any flowers at all though..  It's all about the numbers man.  All about the swarm.

[Bonobo]

I can’t quite remember for sure which level this is (would have to launch my VM again but don’t want to right now) … but if this is the level where Flowers are introduced (for Laser Mines) then I seem to recall that I also always only got one flower, namely that from that single grey asteroid somewhere on the top left, and if that asteroid had more than one flower dangling from their trees, it always was killed while capturing the asteroid.

[Pilchard123]

Nope, I had 3 or 4 last night when I played it.

[xtpd]

Is there any known way to increase the % chance that a Dyson tree will grow a flower? Type of asteroid, number of seedlings on an asteroid. I do think I've been spreading out the swarm too thinly and trying to capture too many asteroids too early in the game. Still, it seems as if the enemies generate A LOT more flowers. During one attempt, there were five or six laser mines from enemy seedlings, but regardless of my attempts I get only one flower.

At this point, it doesn't seem like there is much opportunity for strategy and I'm relying mostly on chance. I'm determined, though.

Thanks for all the pointers.

[annikk.exe]

Every time a Dyson tree is planted, an imaginary dice is rolled to decide whether it will grow a flower or not.
A tree only gets 1 shot at growing a flower.  Either it will grow a single flower, or it will grow zero flowers.  So you can't just camp on 1 or 2 asteroids and hope that a flower might randomly grow on one of your existing Dyson trees - it won't - they only have a chance to grow once and it tends to be when the tree is still fairly young (maybe a few minutes old at most).
Therefore, as I say, the key to mass flowers is mass expansion, because mass expansion means lots of fresh young trees to bear your flowers.  :>


At the start of this map you need to send one seed to scout each asteroid in range - but tell them to return home as soon as the asteroid is revealed so they don't die and can be used to make trees.  Fill out your 2nd asteroid with Dyson trees.  Now grab all the nearby empty asteroids fast, and build Dyson trees on all of them.  Move all your seeds to the next free asteroid the moment they are born.  Get those trees up FAST.
The faster you colonise, the bigger a swarm you will be able to muster, and the more flowers you will acquire.  In a map like this where there aren't any serious attacks early on, the key to winning is fast, efficient expansion and constantly moving your seedlings up from the front lines.

[xtpd]

  Just wanted to post to say thanks for all your help! I was finally successful. I guess all the frustrations  I dealt with makes the victory all the more satisfying.

[annikk.exe]

Congrats :>  And you're welcome ^_^