Chess players talk about the opening, the middlegame and the endgame, and each has its own goals. Short real-time strategy matches have the same three phases, compressed into a few minutes. Knowing which phase you are in tells you what to do.
The opening: grow
Goal: turn your starting position into the biggest economy you can, as fast as you can.
The opening is not about fighting. Everyone starts small, and the side that grows faster has more to fight with later. Your choices are about order: which neutral targets first, and how many units to send to each.
- Take the cheap targets first: the ones near you with weak defences.
- Send enough to win each one quickly, not a single unit.
- Take free bonuses on the map early, before a rival does.
You are leaving the opening when the neutral targets near you are taken and your borders touch a rival's.
The middle: trade well
Goal: come out of every exchange a little ahead.
In the middle of a match, sides are in contact. Fights happen, but no single one decides the game. What decides it is the sum: a little more lost by your rival in each trade, a little more land taken by you.
- Fight on your ground, where you are strong and he is not.
- Do not chase. A retreating enemy on his own ground is a trap.
- Keep growing. Every quiet moment is a moment to take something.
- Watch for big swings coming: a rival saving up for a push, a power spike on a timer.
You are leaving the middle when one side has a clear lead, or when the game's late-match rule arrives.
The close: finish or survive
Goal: if ahead, end it; if behind, survive to the turn.
Short matches usually have a rule that forces an ending, so a lead cannot be sat on forever and a defence cannot hold forever. The close is when it bites.
- Ahead: mass your army and take objectives one after another. Do not scatter.
- Behind: protect what wins the game for you, make him pay for each step, and look for the one opening that turns it.
In Dot Conquest
The three phases line up with the game's own rules:
- Opening: neutral cities and ruins. Pick cities by the size of their guard and how close they are. See expand or defend.
- Middle: Councils every 30 seconds keep changing the balance, and land you wall in counts. Read the rivals' countdowns in the top bar to see their next power spike coming.
- Close: the siege phase begins at 6:00 on the battle's clock. Cities fall faster, garrisons crumble, and a city with an enemy beside it stops producing. See the siege phase.
A battle against one rival lasts about four minutes; with four sides, about nine. Many are decided in the middle, but the siege phase means none drags on forever.
Where to go next
- The first choices: expand or defend early.
- Turning a lead into a win, or a loss into a comeback: pressing a lead and coming back.