I'm no good at planetary battles

[DRNewcomb]

OK. I like playing the game but I really stink at planetary battles. I play the training mission to get some badly needed early credits but get killed whenever I play the actual missions. I like to sit and ponder moves for too long.

Can anyone suggest some easy planetary battles and how to go about winning them? Thanks.

[Silverman]

Hi

I love those RTS-missions or Planetary Battles, some are really difficult, most are quite easy. Some points are from my point of view obligatory for all, others depend on your strategy. Of course this is, what I do, others can of course play totally different. For the most time I win doing what is described below, still you'll find that you can't stick with these 24/7, some situations require you to ignore some of them. Can't give too much details now, is heavily dependent on the situation you are in.

I NEVER build any robot except for 2 versions. Both feature Fullstack-hull and Antigravs-Chassis, as those are superior to every other type. I'd say, not taking these is not a choice.
The first one features 4 Rocket Launchers, a Mortar and the Module Dynamo, accelerating firing. (Rocketbots)
The second one features 4 repairers and a blocker, NO mortar. This is important, as those guys would attack enemies instead of reparing friends. (Repairbots)
These are the two versions I build. As for how to use them, is also clear: Until you own 3/4 or such a number of the map and can just set your bots on Conquer-Mode and win the game, NEVER let the bots attack themselves. Otherwise you will lose too many of them. Only defend with them, attack using a bot in Manual-Control-mode.

The most important rule for me is: Winning without defending is impossible.
The bots will just overrun you, if you don't defend properly. Thank god the AI will most of the time attack every smaller factory they come to, and try to conquer it. Thus most of the time it's enough to properly defend the most forward smaller factory, of course on every side. For the defending I normally do the following: I'll always place stationary Rocket Launchers on the small factories. Exception here is, you don't have enough resources, then the big turret is also good. Still not the option I do much.
Now I place two Rocketbots in such a way beside the Rocket Launcher that they build a kind of "wall" in front of the factory. Important: Rightclick on the exact point, they should go to, and press the "Stop"-Button in the bottom right corner. This will prevent them from moving when the enemies come. This is important because I now place to repairbots behind this line of two Rocketbots and the Rocket Launcher. Also setting them on stop prevents them from running away. The AI will always attack the Rocketbots and the Rocket Launcher, the Repairbots will repair them. Most of the time no single loss should occur to your bots. This grants huge kill-ratios
Another thing is important of this rule: NEVER use your defending robots to attack (unless you will win the game by overkilling the AI). If you need 8 robots to defend, you need 8 robots to defend. I'll only use the remaining bots to attack, if there are any. Also always with manual control.
If you only have 8 robots as a limit, you need to get one of the robots of the defending. Of course always take one on the side you want to attack on. This guarantees you safety on both sides, as player-controlled robots are much stronger than the AI-controlled bots. It's no problem to take out 10 enemy bots alone at the same time. Just don't let them hit you

Yup, so this is my description of the Planetary Battles. Quite huge, and I think, difficult to understand. But nontheless, here it is xD
If you want, I could do a Let's show Planetary Battles, also explaining what I do, while I do it. Choose the map, and wait 2 weeks ^^
Greetings
Silverman

[DRNewcomb]

Thanks for the tips. Can you name particular maps/scenarios I should start with to get more comfortable with playing the RTS?

[Silverman]

Hard to say.
Agro-Intestinal Complex would be a fun one. This, because you have only one way to defend at the beginning. Also you can practice fighting with a robot. Tips for this:
Never ever get in range of the enemy robots, as they'll blast you. Normally they should be many more than you (Xv1). Instead use the range of the Rocket Launchers and walk backwards while shooting them.
Conquering factories is easy as well. Just go near enough to a turret to get a red reticle and shoot as hell. The enemy turret won't shoot, so is an easy kill. Still watch out for enemy robots.

EDIT: Try doing the test-mission building only one robot. This is to train yourself fighting with a robot. I'd take the bot with 4 rockets and the other stuff. Some tips:
Before you attack, be sure, you can run backwards shooting like hell. This is to avoid getting hit by the bots. Also be sure, you don't get too near to the enemies. Because they are walking, you don't need the red recticle but can shoot when it's near to the red area. Always run backwards when attacking the bots, and of course don't try running through the whole mission at once, take short breaks and plan the next attack.

[i_am_memory]

Silverman's advice is almost identical to my strategy. I too use full stack and anti-grav exclusively (except on one very hard map; the one with the automated four lasers in the middle). Rocketbots are the mainstay, with repairer.

I too usually engage the robots in 1st person combat mode and move backwards while firing, while the robots slowly walk into range fo the missiles. Occasionally an antigrav robot enemy must be led as they are fast, but usually you can just aim right where they are. The range of the missiles is greater than any turret, too, so just inch close until the reticule goes red.

Sometimes I trade out a rocket launcher for a stasis gun (the one that freezes a robot for a few seconds). Then I have a rocketbot with three missile launchers and one stasis gun. I find that three of these robots are very reliable defensively. But I only take over and control directly the fourstack rocketbot for quick kills.

Usually I take a single rocketbot and weaken the enemy defenses, taking out turrets and bots. Then I usually take several bots and send them to the location I want to capture. You do not have to click on the capture icon, you can simply have them stand around near each other and then have one of them stand on the factory for capturing. Leaving them in a tight group is a bit better defensively because they all will defend intstead of only a few spread out over a distance.

Remember: higher ground really matters in these games as the robots take a long time to climb a hill. They also go slower in water, so use both of these to weaken an army coming towards you.

If you position your defensive rocketbots just a little behind your turret, the enemy robots will focus fire on the turret. This is preferable because robots are more expensive to build and can take fewer hits. Generally use rocket turrets as they do the most damage. However the heavy gun can take the most hits, so I sometimes put it at the nearest front to soak up damage.

The key to winning all the planetary battles is economic. You must have more resources than the computer. So defend and play conservative, slowly capturing a factory here, a factory there. When you see the computer mostly builds walking robots (because it is out of money and cannot afford anti-gravs) then you know you have the economic advantage and can press.

[DRNewcomb]

I took Silverman's suggestions for the training mission and lost fewer robots than any previous attempt. I may try a real RTS mission now.