Strategy Tips for NetStorm
by Don Plummer (a.k.a. Oboeist).
Bridge Building
There are two key elements in bridge placement: (1) where you place them and (2) speed.
Broken Bridges
First off, no matter how fast you want to place bridges, you never want to place broken
bridges. I have seen people practically lose games by placing broken bridges. They fall
a lot sooner and get destroyed more easily. If you have 6 bridge slots, you have a lot
to choose from, so use them all.
Shortcut Keys
If you didn’t know, there are short cut keys to the bridges in the Production Window.
And they are very easy:
Q W
A S
Z X
Selecting bridges is a lot easier and faster using these keys.
Placement
When placing bridges you want to keep in mind two things: (1) where you are going and
(2) where you are placing units connected to it.
Where you are going is obviously important, as all units you place along it depend on it.
You always want to get the shortest distance between points. This is storm bolt from your
Workshop doesn’t take a millennia to get there. If an Edge Farm is on th e island you are
trying to connect to, you must go around. I’ve seen people ask why they can’t get on an
island, when the only bridge there is "connected" to an Edge Farm.
You never want to build bridges off units. This is so that if that unit is destroyed your
bridge stays intact. Always use the sections of bridges that have little things coming off
of them (we call them "spurs"). The T shaped one is the best; also the backward "f" and
forward "f".
This also helps organization and speed. By having few curves, your units build quicker.
Going through units takes awhile because it goes along the side, not right through.
Strategies with Bridges
There are several strategies using only bridges. Surrounding and blocking are the two main
ones.
Surrounding
If you surround your opponent, he/she can’t get out. This is very useful if they aren’t
watching. :) To do this successfully you must use the shortcut keys. Make sure you have
bridge sections going on the both the inside and the outside.
You can also surround yourself. This will, in some cases, keep people away from you.
Blocking
Blocking is a simple concept. Just build bridges where you think you opponent is going
to build a unit or a bridge. This can really screw them up.
The Outpost
This is one of the most over looked units. I see people who never use this building. This
building is the most important unit in the game. With it, you can control any island not
already controlled by another player. It also acts as a relay station for the little storm
bolt that is needed for all units, therefore facilitating quicker building of units. When
an outpost is built on an island, you alone (and no one else) can build on that island.
Timing
Timing is crucial for the first few minutes of any game. While the game is loading, you must
look at the map and notice the largest islands, and the closest island on which an outpost
can fit. Build a temple, a workshop, and a golem. As soon as you st art a golem getting
storm crystals, start bridge building to the island you picked out. Then get your generators
going, building them out toward the neutral island. Then build your outpost.
Placement
The placement of an outpost is just as critical as getting it up quickly. On a large island,
placing the outpost in the middle is a good idea. You need to have enough space around the
outpost to place either blockers or a Sun Barrier. This is so that y our opponent cannot
destroy the outpost and take over the island. You should try to place it as far away from
your opponent as possible, but with enough room to create a defense.
If the island is extremely large (like, it goes across the screen), then you should build
outpost at each end, for faster unit creation around the board, and quicker harvesting.
Make sure, when you send your priest to build an outpost, that your enemy doesn’t discover
you and build Sun Disc Throwers or Crossbows on the island. Any time you bring your priest
"out," he can be nabbed. You also want to make sure that th ere are no Disc Throwers or
Crossbows along the way to the island as well.
Controlling the Whole board
Controlling the entire board (i.e., a lot of neutral islands) will almost ensure victory.
You will be able to flank your opponent, and build units quickly. This will also make it
much harder for them to attack your home island. And it also ensures cons tant flow of
resources (storm power).
Transports drop storm power off at the nearest outpost, not always the temple. So build
an outpost near a large geyser group.
Gathering Storm Power
Without storm power you can’t build anything. Money is the key to everything! The best
way to harvest this is with air transports. Air Ships are the best for this purpose: fast
and strong. The point is to get a lot of crystals. Create at least 12 tra nsports to get
crystals in an eight player game. Set up outposts on islands near the geysers to facilitate
the process.
If using ground transports, such as Sail Skaters, you must constantly watch to see if there
is a geyser for them to go to. Always building bridges to geysers is not recommended (you’ll
be busy attacking people soon enough!), so airborne transports are the best, as they seek
out geysers on their own and fly to them.
Depriving your opponent of Resources
It is a great strategy to deprive your opponent of resources. This makes it so that they
cannot build any units, and allows for an easy victory. The best way to do this is to destroy
their transports. There are three weapons that are great for destroyi ng transports: Crossbow,
Sun Disc Thrower, and Vander Tower.
The Crossbow is ideal because of its attack area and speed. With its incredible speed it can
quickly reduce any group of transports to dust. The great weakness is its range. With only a
30° radius it needs to be placed expertly to be of any use.
The Sun Disk Thrower is a fairly good unit, and since you start off with it, it’s perhaps
the most common. With a 360° radius, just place it in the path of the transports. Because
of its relatively slow refresh rate, many of them are needed to reduce a n army of transports.
Vander Towers are extremely powerful, but are only able to attack flying units. They are
good against Air Ships, Cloud Floaters and Balloons. They will almost instantly incinerate
any air unit that comes within its range.
Defense of thy Home Island
Since your home island is your command post, it is one of the most important parts of the
game, and must be defended well.
Temple
The temple is just as important as the workshops. Personally, at the start of a game, I
build my temple next to the nearest storm geyser, for a quick harvesting head start. What
you should do then is just build a network of bridges, off the island, on the same side as
the temple. (If you happen to build your temple in the center, just surround it with stone
towers. But I recommend placing it on the side of the island so that you can fit more
workshops, in addition to the harvesting head start.)
Barricades
Barricades are a good choice for defense of your home island. Your best bet is to build
the barricade on bridges built off your island (as opposed to putting the barricades on
your island), and in such a fashion that four of them will protect the whole island. Then
you want to build Towers around each of the barricades, so that your opponent can’t easily
take out your defenses. If you happen to have Wind Towers and Bulwarks you want to arrange
them like this:
X = Bulwark
O = Barrier
- = Barrier Beam
W = Wind Tower
XWX
WO------------------------------------------->
X |
You also want to build Crossbows or Sun Disc Throwers all around so that your opponent
cannot send a balloon (or other air transport) to destroy the barrier and get an easy shot
at your home island.
Watching the Board
You should constantly watch the board (the main map) to see if your opponent is building
bridges to attack your island. Once you see this you should start to use your bridges to
stop the advance.
(Special thanks to Xeno for suggesting Defense of thy Battle Island.)
