So, how about that Level 22?

[EcoMaster21]

I've found that I can not succeed at this level. It seems as if it just isn't meant to be!

I start out by sending one seedling to each asteroid that I can reach from the starting point. I always do this, so I can get an idea of what's going on around me. Usually, right off the bat, the AI teams are massing towards one asteroid and expand on it. I am usually left with anywhere from 3-6 asteroids uninhabited by enemies, so I expand to those first.

However, the volatile nature of the level seems to be throwing me off. I can mass an enemy planet with many seedlings, only to be crushed before a seedling can even land on the asteroid. Sometimes, I notice my seedlings are doing the ass-kicking, but I tend to be the one getting vaporized. Even though I start out fairly strong, getting plenty of flowers (which I try to use exclusively on laser pods in this level) and covering ground at a fair speed, the enemy starts to leak groups of five seedlings at a time on my outer asteroids, which somehow devastates them every time, even if I have a defense tree, 10-15 seedlings, and a laser pod. The AI continues this attack pattern slowly, which keeps my seedling counts down, and if they get a laser pod landed, that's it.

Am I starting out wrong? Should I be using offensive flower upgrades instead? Are defensive trees even worth using on this level?

I'm thoroughly enjoying this game, and though I might come off as a bit desperate to get past this level, the difficulty is something I am enjoying. However, I'd like to get past this level one of these days, so I figured I'd go ahead and ask the community for their input 

[EcoMaster21]

In the middle of watching Glee and wondering why I couldn't get past this level, I read my whole post and figured, "Well, I've got nothing to lose."

It turns out, the strategy that worked in the end was a full-throttle offensive. Certainly surprised me.

But, after thinking about it for a moment, it does make sense. It would appear that the instant-death strikes are random. This may or may not be true, but more seedlings means more chance in dealing lethal blows. That much is certain. That, added with the extra fire speed an Enhanced seedling has, added with the lack of instant-death features of a defensive tree and the corresponding laser pod makes a fully offensive strategy actually make quite a bit of sense. Any defense trees I had were a result of asteroid takeovers. While they do quite a bit of damage to masses with low energy, their performance paled in comparison to that of the seedlings.

Another tactic I picked up in a near-death experience in my success was to NEVER leave your outer asteroids without adequate protection. I found that keeping 10-15 seedlings on the asteroids forming my perimeter helped quite a bit, both offensively and defensively. The trickle tactic was rendered useless by making double sure that I was protected. I tried to keep one defensive tree on each asteroid, but as I mentioned, seedlings seem to perform the defending job much better on this stage. This tactic also helped during my asteroid takeovers. Rather than send all of my seedlings, I only attacked with seedlings on asteroids that could not be directly attacked by enemy asteroids. I noticed that in about 80% of my invasions, the enemy would send all of it's seedlings out to attack one of my asteroids immediately once my seedlings took flight. By keeping my reachable asteroids secure, the result of the enemy's tactic was many dead seedlings. Sometimes I still lost my asteroid, but I would retain a few seedlings from the attack, who could then re-take the asteroid.

This level is definitely one of the hardest levels in the game. I've played the last level, and can beat it fairly consistently. What made this level a challenge was the fact that the player had to adapt to a new battle system in which perhaps a small army could disintegrate a much larger army. I have to give Alex and Rudolf huge kudos for such a challenge. The completion of this level was definitely a great feeling

I look forward to seeing what the community does with the scripting engine. Who knows, I may just have to learn my way around all of this LUA mumbo jumbo myself!

[Rudolf]

Yeah, there is plenty of scope for playing with the game's rules to create unique levels. I probably should have included more one offs like this one but it is hard to tell :-)

[Mr Frank]

Attack and speed are the most important attributes to this kind of level.  Energy is more-or-less irrelevant when everything dies in one or two hits.  And attack only matters if it influences range, which I'm not sure about.  Fast seedlings will stand a much better chance at officially reaching an asteroid and going into assault mode, before its resident defenders tear it apart.  Slow seedlings tend to get destroyed before they unfold their wings and start fighting.
Speedy assault is the way.  I hardly even planted trees in that level.

One tactic that works amazingly in this level is to wait for your enemy to spend all of its seedlings on trees, then take the trees as your own.