Every real-time strategy game has to answer one question: what happens when neither side can break through? Some end the game on a timer. Dot Conquest never wins a battle on time. Instead, at a fixed point on the clock, the siege phase begins, and cities become much easier to take. Stalemates break, and somebody wins by conquest.
When it starts, and what changes
From 6:00 on the battle's clock, then, three things are true for the rest of the battle:
- Capture rings are shorter. A city falls to a smaller crowd, faster.
- Garrisons crumble. The guards that make a city hard to take wear away.
- A besieged city stops making dots. If an enemy stands beside one of your cities, it produces nothing until he is gone.
You cannot miss it: the clock in the top bar changes to crossed swords, in the warning colour, and stays that way. A message announces it too.
Why it is there
Without it, two careful players could sit behind their cities forever. The siege phase tilts the game toward attack: every city is more fragile, and a city with an enemy at its gate is not even making defenders. Whoever is ready to move when it starts usually wins.
Before the siege: plan for it
- Know the clock. The top bar shows the battle's time. As 6:00 approaches, decide where you will attack.
- Mass your army. In the siege phase, one big group taking cities one after another is far stronger than many small groups.
- Bring Sieges. The Siege dot cracks Heavies and shells crowds, and crowds are exactly what defend cities. See the three abilities.
- Shore up your weak cities. A city on its own, far from your army, is the one that falls first once the siege begins.
In the siege: what to do
- Keep enemies away from your cities. One enemy dot beside your city stops it making dots. Clear them quickly.
- Stand beside his cities. The same rule works against your rival: park a group next to his city and it stops reinforcing.
- Go for the win. Holding every city or 90% of the map ends the battle. With rings shorter, a run of captures can finish it fast.
Cards that care about the siege
A couple of cards keep a garrison in your cities, and they end when the siege begins: Garrison Oath and Watchmen.
Plan around that: a garrison card holds your cities early, not late.
On some campaign levels a side keeps its garrisons through the siege, and when that is so, the level card says it.
A medal for finishing early
Every campaign level has stars to earn, and one kind asks you to win before the siege begins:
Where to go next
- How captures work: capturing cities.
- The shape of a whole battle: opening, middle and close.