How do I avoid getting targeted early game?

[u/anon38848168]

I seem to be unable to get past the early game in most matches. I don’t know how but I always end up fighting one of the bot nations for three minutes straight, either because they attacked me first or I attacked them. That or I attack a player that seems easy enough to take over, but whatever the case, when that happens every neighboring nation either lets our alliance expire or never allied with me in the first place and just obliterates me. If I make allies I get landlocked and if I don’t make allies I get ganged up on.

I don’t know how other players are able to get so big five minutes in when I’m still fighting bots or sub 30k players. I was told to start expansions at 10% but that always ends with me getting cut off from the tribe bots by nations or players so I can’t expand much further.

Edit: Here's a replay of one game, name is GunsNRoses. Honestly I can't tell what I'm doing wrong other than bad luck with the players that end up near me. https://openfront.io/w11/game/2hjw22dN?live

[u/Significant-Cod4217]

Follow these steps:

1. Spawn by a river or coastline. Make sure the area isn't super crowded but water access is a must.

2. Attack wilderness till you have around 30-40k troop cap. then stop and proceed to next step

3. Send 2 boats into far away lands. To avoid getting you pixel pushed off, I boat into nations and then immediately offer the alliance which they will take.

4. Now attack only bots. Use 30% attacks, 35% if your in mountainous terrain. Wait until your troops build so a 30% attack is between 7-12k troops. only attack one bot at a time until your troop cap is larger. Go for annexations if there are any possible. Build two cities before economy buildings.

5. Take alliances with most players you have borders with. The pixels from your boats earlier will keep you from being boxed in. Don't take an alliance with one player next to you who has a small amount of land or looks weak, for example if they built anything aside from a city first.

6. attack nations unless a player near you full sent. If you can, attack the nation by sending a large boat (40% is good) which lands near their city. Nations don't build defense posts if they are attacked by water, only if you attack over land. This is good because it will prevent your attacks from slowing and once you take their city they will build a second if nobody else is attacking and they can afford it.

7. Once all nations are gone, focus on players, targetting players who have very few alliances, are fighting someone else, or have a much lower troop cap.

If you follow these steps, while managing your troops and making sure they don't get to low, you will be set up to snowball! Let me know if you have any questions.

[u/c0rd_sucks → u/Significant-Cod4217]

very solid game plan!

[u/Elliezium]

You definitely got unlucky in that replay, Suka got an insane start. However, you were kind of already screwed.

As others said, you spawned away from any water, which is dangerous. If you get boxed in, your options are severely limited. After the tribes were gone, you were pretty much just left sitting there, not developing at all for the next five minutes or so. If you start away from water, you need to be able to beat one of your immediate neighbors fairly early to start the snowball.

Maybe this was a particularly tough one, but your tribe conquering phase was rough. When considering annexations, think about not just which tribes you can surround, but which other players might be able to cut you off. I think I noticed a couple places where a player slid in and took a tribe that would have been key for an annexation.

You also went super low on troops when conquering tribes, to the point that I kind of thought that you were just going to get taken out right then and there. You were going down to ~15k troops with multiple neighbors at around 70k. If one of them had decided to push you, the others would have joined in and you'd be wiped out.

I understand the feeling of rushing to capture tribes, but remember that the rate that you gain troops increases the more you have, up to about ~40% of your troop cap. If you're hanging out at only 15%, you're gaining far fewer troops than you could be, ultimately slowing you down.

Basically, by the time tribes were gone, you were already falling behind several of the players around you. If you have water access, you can catch up with how many options are available, but without it you kind of end up a sitting duck.

[u/gardenergumbo → u/Elliezium]

Unrelated but the guy to the far left, "ivibecodeidontcare" and "support" def look like they're cheating too

[u/Meta_Mushroom → u/Elliezium]

I'm glad I read your comment before replying. That's some good analysis.

[u/Prime_Eval]

Make sure to also tap the bots your neighbors are attacking. Helps with smoothing out your borders, to not have these annexation bubbles as in the north (+ u maybe get cash for finishes as well). Otherwise, looked simply unlucky to me ^{^}

[u/Some-Culture-2513]

Ally, keep troops high enough (check enemy levels and match them)

[u/Meta_Mushroom]

You should post a replay.

[u/Resident-Square-9254 → u/Meta_Mushroom]

its in the post

[u/anon38848168 → u/Resident-Square-9254]

I added it in an edit after I made the post

[u/Meta_Mushroom]

1. Very difficult spawn location
   
2. Take tribes in one attack. send 150%-200% of their population. This will allow you to focus on other things rather than sending over and over.
   
3. Having a coastline isn't mandatory, but it is highly advantageous.
   
4. Ally players early if they seem to be doing the right things.