BZRKR COUNTERPOINT | PADRAIG RESPONDS
Padraig's Turtle Strategy
Note! This is a particularly interesting article because it argues against player's using what Padraig has coined as the 'Turtle Strategy'
One of the strategies I've often seen employed by inexperienced players is the 'Turtle Strategy'. It consists of putting up to a 5th or even more of the land available into defensive shields and another 5th or more into planetary turrets. This leaves them with very little land to use for espionage, research, communications or shipbuilding.
I've sometimes communicated with these players while I'm attacking them and the reason has always been "to defend what I have. As soon as my research is good enough, I'll build some ships to go out and attack."
To start with, this strategy is totally useless for the first 25 turns of the game because you are under protection and cannot be attacked during that time. There is absolutely no reason to have any defenses until after your period of protection is over. Even for a number of turns after protection ends, there is little need for large defenses because anything that the opponents can send to you won't be strong enough to take down your defenses before you can counter them. The length of time you are reasonably safe will vary from game to game but suffice it to say that it's unlikely for you to see more than a few weak fighters immediately after protection ends. If your opponent is using Teragen's strategy of concentrating on Battle Cruisers's, you will not even see them for even more turns because it takes that long to get the first Battle Cruisers's and their thrust is negligible at this point in the game so it takes them a long time to get there.
The worst part of this strategy though is that the land that could be used for espionage and research is being taken up by useless defenses. If you don't do a considerable amount of espionage, you can't find other habitable world's to conquer and the object of the Land Grab game by definition is to be the one with the most habitable world's by turn #350. On top of that, if you don't turn over a lot of your land to research, even if you do find other solar systems, you won't have the strength to conquer them if you haven't researched technologies. You will never have enough technology to go out and conquer because the players who put most of their land into espionage and research are finding things faster than you are and for every habitable world they take early in the game, their research is increased by the amount of land they have gained.
Simple logic will also tell you that this 'Turtle Strategy' cannot win. Even if you somehow create defenses that nobody can breach, at the end of the game you will only have one habitable world. That means that if nobody else in the entire game ever found and conquered another habitable world, the best you could do would be a tie with 46 other players and ties don't count in the Land Grab game. You have to have more habitable world's than your opponents to win.
Don't be a Turtle! Go out there and win! Use Teragen's Strategy, ZaGul's Strategy or any other strategy or tactic you can think of but do not be a Turtle!
Padraig from the Tekoa of Kennesaw
Guest Contributor
I wouldn't be so hard on the Turtles. (sorry) I'm just ending a Land Grab where three large-ish Turtle empires hemmed me into a corner. It seems that as soon as I attacked they dumped all their research into turrets. They shot down most of my fleet and forced me rebuild my fleet and jump over their star systems to attack smaller, more vulnerable empires.
What the Turtles should have done after scorching my Battle Cruisers was switch to ship tech and go on the offensive - remember that resources in a landgrab game are limited and fleets consisting of capitol ships are expensive.
While they kept hardning their defenses I was adding systems. At turn #260 I switched all research to manueverability. Remember that turret targeting maxes out at 20! Once my manueverability got to 25/26 my Battle Cruiserss were virtually immune to planetary defenses. End game time.
In summary: Turtle-ing-up is a valid desperation move if you follow through by snapping back!
BZRKR
Guest Commentator
Turtle-ing-up is a reasonable tactic while actually under attack and is something I have done on occassion. However, that's not the situation I was describing.
What I'm calling 'Turtles' are the players who even by turn #260 just have one habitable world, with few research or espionage facilities, and haven't even tried any conquests. Their concept of the game is just to survive.
The player you describe has an empire and the ability to strike back, perhaps even to win. The strategy I was describing is a guaranteed losing strategy because the player doesn't attempt to 'come out of his/her shell'. They always need a little more research to be competitive, mainly because they don't have enough research going in the first place to keep up.
Even in your rebuttal, you said at the end that the opponents who 'turtled-up' were defenseless against your maxed out Battle Cruisers's which is exactly my point. You must have the maximum espionage and research possible to be able to win.
I will however, concede that Turtle-ing-up may be a valid tactic either when actually under attack or when you are going to be off-line for a period of time so you can't check in to defend your holdings.
Padraig from the Tekoa of Kennesaw
Guest Contributor
PADRAIG'S TURTLE STRATEGY | BZRKR COUNTERPOINT | PADRAIG RESPONDS
