I'm playing this game again, and this time I beat this map in the second attempt! That still had me almost howling in frustration, although I generally like the RTS portion of the game.
I was using the extra armor, and even when I succeeded, it was at times a very close affair. Much of that may be due to the problems imposed by the very sluggish controls and my inefficient (for this map at least) way of using them.
My usual strategy is building defensive positions except in the direction where I intend to expand. In this turtling I use dedicated attack/launcher robots with dedicated healers posted behind. This map is too cramped, however, for the robots used in the above strategy to work in the initial rush for the Keller base.
First Failure
This was the first time I experimented with jack-of-all-trades robots that have one repairer module. I also used, besides two launchers (in my first, failed attempt alternated with two plasma), one spitfire on most. These are very effective in the confined areas here.
My first attempt at the map still failed, probably because of several little things. One, I had alternated the heads of my robots between Locator, Firewall and maybe Dynamo, too. Keller uses Stunners often in this map, and my first two robots did get stunned and died without accomplishing much. In my second go I used Firewall heads exclusively on all my rushers.
Two, I am no good at keeping my robots moving in a fight. At least not when I at the same time need to send reinforcements for those that are inevitably going to die.
Three, I think I used Stunners on several of my robots. That proved disastrous later, see below. Also, I am not certain of this, but Keller probably uses Firewall on most of his initial bots as well.
Four, I manually tried to set my robots to capture the Keller base. For reasons unknown to me, this order often doesn't stick. Especially when I have a group selected and set them to capture the base, the game seems to give this order only to one of them and sets the rest to maybe take positions around that base. Can there possibly be only one robot that is manually set to capture a given base or factory? Anyway, at times I had my robots milling in the front of the Keller base uselessly, slowly being ground down.
When they eventually took the base, it was one robot from the very back moving forth. My trys to set the robot closest to capture this base were unheeded, probably because that one from the back already had that order. So I got the base, but I had already lost. My resources had run dry because of the makeup of my robots, Blazer had taken my initial base and was already coming at my back. I couldn't build any healers because too liberal use of Stunners had left me short in the critical resource. And I had made the mistake of ordering two defense turrets on the newly captured base. These blocked the building queue for too long, anyway.
Second Attempt: The battle for Keller's base
Some of the mistakes I had made above went into the strategies for my next try: I was very sensitive about the resources used in the build of my robots. I think I used Firewall, two Launchers, Spitfire and Repair exclusively for the first ten. Accidentally I took the slow tracks for propulsion, but whether these hindered or helped (they offer the highest hit point bonus, after all) I cannot tell in hindsight. When again the disaster of the milling robots in front of the Keller base was unfolding, I finally had the brilliant idea of activating the capturing program. This time I got the base quickly!
But I wasn't even half there, yet, the really frustrating parts were still to come!
Defending the central Base
Blazer had capped the Terron base at about the same time and his rush to my base was building. I managed to weather this rush well enough but not without some difficulty: One problem I always have in tight-run situations is with getting freshly built robots to do what I want. I have the impression that I sometimes need to babysit them every step of the way, their target selection in close confines (in this particular case down the ramp from my base) seems at times completely nuts. I had switched my robot building strategy back to the mix of dedicated healers and attack bots. That proved fruitful in the clump that built on the ramp to my base where my attack bots where locked in the press of Blazer's.
The survivors of the battle at Keller's base were coming back (slowly) at the same time. I intended them to cover the sidewalks from the stern of the ship. For some reason that did not work at all. At least one should have a clear shot alongside the railing on each side. Maybe my mistake was trying to cram two on each side and they hindered each other somehow, I don't know. I then brought them into the fight by ordering them closer to the mouths of the ramps to the central base. There they did fire but were slaughtered quickly.
The Battle for the Foredeck
Anyway, after weathering the initial rush, I tried to get on the offensive and ordered my bots to build short lines on each side where the sidewalks meet the foredeck. Bolstering three (I hoped, but only two would fit) launcher bots with three (I hoped) healers should be enough to hold these positions until the situation had stabilized. This plan backfired severely. These positions are too close to the defense turrets of the factories on the foredeck. Two bots with healers behind have no problem withstanding such turrets and keeping them down as they get rebuilt, but only when not pressed by enemy bots at the same time. In addition to that, severe line-of-sight problems were hitting with the positions I tried my bots to hold. Sometimes one of them wasn't firing at all.
I was losing bots at an alarming rate and struggling to send in reinforcements quickly enough, while at the same time trying to fix those apparent line-of-sight problems by moving my bots around. I never got enough healers to the front to keep my launcher bots alive where Blazer was keeping the press up. And of course, my reinforcements tended to block themselves on their way to the front, then getting in the way of whatever survivors were still at the place where they should take position, dancing a frustrating, evil dance. So I found myself in a deteriorating situation with resources slowly but steadily running out (that overuse of the tracks propulsion system at the beginning came back at me since the corresponding resource became the scarcest), and what I kept building was mostly dictated by the materials I had left. I could only afford quad Launchers where I would have loved to throw in Stunners. Yet, had I made much use of them, I couldn't have afforded to replace my healers which were also dying all around.
Blazer had shifted his pressure, which came at the start of our battle from both his bases, to just one side after a time. I think he was beginning to run short in resources as well. On the side where Blazer kept attacking my position collapsed, and he was going for my central base again. On the other side I could stabilize enough to not be bothered by the periodically rebuilt turret. But I had trouble stemming Blazer's dash at my base. What turned out to work was manually selecting each target for my fresh attack bots coming down from my base. I was losing a couple of them, But Blazer was losing more. I managed to throw in a healer now and then, which in turn kept my attackers alive longer at first, then alive indefinitely when I finally found a defensible postion:
To Victory
So this is where the tide turned: At the base of the ramp from my central base I could position two bots so that they had a clear shot along the railing. I had to place them one behind and slightly to the side of the other, which was enough to not obstruct the hind robot's view too much. Eventually three dedicated healers further behind kept them alive. Two probably would have been enough. The makeup of the attack bots was: 2 Plasma, Stunner(! extremely valuable here), Spitfire at the fore and a 4 Launcher bot behind. Both where with Firewall heads, Mortar and on Wheels, IIRC. Now Keller was bashing his head in against this position and I had a free hand on the other side of the ship.
From here on it was just mopping up. I built another healer and a mixed bag of attackers with some Stunners until reaching my robot cap, then took on the base where Blazer wasn't building bots ... describing it would be really boring...
Conclusion
I have no idea whether the defensive position at the mouth of the ramps from the central base is in some way key to succeed in the semi-turtling I was trying to do here. After all, I had the impression that at the time I was having success with this, Blazer had reached the point where his robot rush was toned down due to lack of resources. The bases on this map produce recources extremely fast, but not fast enough to build top of the line fullstack bots constantly.
It is clear that this map is designed to not tolerate turtling strategies well or at all (despite what other's may say, turtling can still be an effective strategy on many of the RTS maps, maybe not the best, but it offers a relaxed way of playing this sub-game). My problem is that I am just no good at the alternative, rushing effectively myself. Maybe the automated combat programs have some merits here. This is certainly true for the capturing program when one is on the rush at Keller's base. I had been avoiding these programs like the plague after some misadventures on easier maps, and I didn't try attack or defense programs here at all.
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