Chapter III: Basic Strategies (& Explanation of Basic Computer AI)

Strategy Discussion: Exploiting first-turn advantage and predictable poor computer AI

Typically, the computer starts with many more programs than you. However, the computer programs are usually weaker than your best programs (with the exception of the 4/7/3 Attack Dog and the final Boss). Also, you always get the first turn, which often allows you to kill several computer units without losing any of your own. Your largest advantage is your ability to cleverly micromanage your own units -- the computer AI has severe deficits.

The computer does a reasonable job of killing units that are within striking range, but otherwise simply moves each unit in order directly toward your closest unit. This strategy only works well when the computer has superior firepower. Usually the computer's starting position has been carefully crafted to minimize the self-inflicted carnage of its suicidal AI. When the computer has multiple melee units and wide open terrain, its mass rush strategy works adequately. The computer's strategy is extremely poor when navigating along narrow corridors. The computer's strategy also wastes the value of its ranged units, since they all charge forward at full speed.

Strategy A. Use Clog and Bit-Man to Create Blockades and Bottlenecks

If you Clog the computer's long, slow-moving melee units (such as Wardens), you can create a large barricade. This often allows you to clog additional units as they work their way through the bottleneck. A movement-0 unit is harmless - as long as you stay out of range of its head!

Similarly, using Bit-Man to Zero a moat (or partial moat) between you and the computer's attacking force enables you to easily snipe away the opposing force. Several of the large "impossible-looking" battles are straightforward to win using a couple of Bit-Men and Catapults or Satellites. (For a more challenging game, don't use the Bit-Man's Zero ability.)

IMPORTANT! For a more Challenging Game:

1. Don't Cheat: Don't use Bit-Man's Zero on squares occupied by your programs. (I recommend this.)
2. No Digging: If you're ready for more of a challenge, don't use Bit-Man's Zero program at all. Bring in Bit-Man only to lay tracks to islands using the One program.
3. Highlander: (If the game still seems too easy...) In addition to not using Bit-Man Zero, play through the entire game from the start using only 1 copy of each program! This forces you to use second-string units in large battles. It makes a few of the nodes extraordinarily difficult.
4. Ultimate Challenge: In the last chapter of this Strategy Guide, I'm compiling a "minimal upload" for each node. For example: Can you beat Security Access Level 4 nodes using only a single Hack 1.0?

Strategy B. Assassinate Enemy Units Using Your First-Turn Ambush

Allocate your units so that you can exterminate computer units on the first turn without taking any losses. Typically, units in the initial setup begin at size 1, making them vulnerable to any attack. Computer units are often placed in mutually protective packs, which means that your BuzzBomb or other bugs (size-1 fast-moving non-ranged units) will be destroyed by the computer's first-turn retaliation. Instead, consider using seekers and other long-reaching beefy units -- or send multiple units to destroy or block off an entire pack in one corner of the board. Remember that Turbo programs can buff your unmoved pieces, enabling you to attack units that would otherwise be out of range!

Strategy C. Draw Computer Units into Superior Fire using Defensive Formation and Retreat

By building a defensive formation just outside of the computer's range, you can continually destroy the computer's leading edge without losing your own units.

Plan ahead to your next move. If there is ample space behind you, it is often safer to pull back and avoid any losses (without inflicting damage), rather than trading damage with the computer. This is especially true when you are buffing your own programs every turn (using Turbo or Data Doctor).

Mobility is crucial! Be careful not to recklessly fill your own territory with non-damaging programs like Data Doctor Pro or Memory Hog -- they don't need to expand unless you are using them on the front lines as an ablative wall. Back-rank buffing units sometimes need to be kept small in order to maximize body-room for your front-rank troops. Remember that you can shrink some of your own units to clear space. For example, Turbo and Fiddle programs shrink when you activate their powers.

When retreating, it is sometimes useful to have Seeker 3.0 shrink itself by using Seek-and-Destroy-5 on a vacant square. For example, this strategy can be used to pull Seeker's tail away from the lethal Wardens.

Strategy D. Concentrate Your Forces for Regional Superiority

Since all computer units will steam full-speed toward you, you can predict the flow of the game and choose your initial placement to assure regional superiority.

Concentrate your firepower to kill enemy units. Damaging an enemy unit for less than its movement is often a waste of time - the computer will just grow it again - unless you can jam it up with a melee unit.

Conversely, disperse enemy firepower to preserve your own units. In an ideal scenario, your front-rank units absorb a small amount of damage every turn, but replenish it during their movement.

A particularly common example: Don't blindly attack the closest foe with your melee golem. Often, your adjacent foe is a sentinel who will be forced to damage your golem. Kill a nearby fast-moving dog that threatens your back rank instead. The battle becomes more predictable -- the golem-blockaded sentinel can be killed at your convenience.

By carefully focusing units so that you have slight superiority, you can cause enough casualties so that the computer doesn't have sufficient force to kill any of your units in response. These small advantages add up exponentially over time, until the computer forces are no longer a threat. For most scenarios, if you play extremely carefully for the first four or five turns, your advantage becomes overwhelming. Many of the scenarios can be won without taking a single loss.

Strategy E. Abuse the AI Quirks

Computer units can't move onto credit squares – these squares act as barriers that you can remove at your convenience. Credit squares provide ready-made bottlenecks, making several scenarios much easier.

The computer AI first tries to kill your units. When the computer has a choice of targets, the computer kills more expensive units first. For example, you can use a damaged golem as a lure in order to get your satellite within range of an enemy island, allowing you to win an island scenario without building a land bridge. If your golem is too long, however, the enemy artillery will preferentially kill your satellite rather than simply damaging your golem. Your golem has to be wounded enough to be killable to successfully divert the enemy barrage.

If the computer can't kill you, it moves towards the closest of your units. The computer AI does not use any path-finding! Instead, each unit approaches the closest of your units as the crow flies, regardless of whether intervening units or moats make arrival impossible. If you own multiple equidistant units, the computer AI appears to prefer moving toward your dangerous units first (perhaps your more expensive units). Remember, this only applies to unkillable units. The computer will walk away from damaging your long unit in order to kill your short unit.

A computer unit that is extended out into a long line will often walk over itself when you approach it from its tail. The computer steps on itself even when making a U-turn onto an empty row would be much smarter. A BuzzBomb can kill a full-size Warden+ because of this: Run close alongside the Warden+ and snipe at locations three away where the Warden+ will walk twice over itself to approach you. Eventually the Warden+ will get down to size 5 and you can kamikaze it.

On the other hand, if a computer unit gets knotted into a block of squares (so that its head has no adjacent vacancies), the computer AI becomes extremely reluctant to walk on top of itself. Unless the unit is able to kill one of your units in a single turn, the unit usually stops moving entirely and sits motionless forever – even when it could damage you or escape death with a single turn.

If a unit is extremely small (particularly size 1) and can't kill you, the computer AI will sometimes walk the unit instead of damaging you. However, without compelling reason to choose one direction over another, the computer AI doesn't have the sense to stay away from map edges and corners. A Data Doctor (size 5) and a Bug (size 1) can defeat a Fire Wall, since the Data Doctor can form a 5-space U causing the Fire Wall to retreat randomly until it dies against the map edge. An intelligent (human) opponent would stalemate you by sidling back and forth with the Fire Wall staying away from map edges.

Return to SpyboticsNightfallIncident main page.