Strategies/Observations and General Strategies

This article is **archived**. It is no longer updated, and it may be obsolete.

## Observations and General Strategies by Bakalol

By Bakalol from 05/25/2019

Hello fellas,

as many of you are new to the game and I've probably been one of the more dedicated players I have decided to share my observations and general strategies with you.

### 1. Tier-list

To start off I'd like to start with tribe strength. As you probably know tribes are not created equally so I've compiled a short tier-list on how I would rate them:

·         SSS: Bardur

·         S: Luxidoor

·         A: Kickoo, Zebasi, Imperius

·         B: Hoodrick and Yadakk

·         C: Xin-Xi, Ai-Mo, Quetzali, Elyrion, Oumaji

·         Z: Vengir, Aquarion

\*I made edits on this page but did not touch the tier list; however, I think one of the more experienced players should go through and re-do it since the balance pass changed a lot.

Note that for games played on the PolyChampions server usually only the top 5 are relevant with Bardur being banned frequently. In case of 3v3, Hoodrick and Yadakk become popular choices for 3rd pick. Kickoo is probably close to being S tier on the PolyChampions server due to the restart rule (if you're on an island without any whales).

Vengir and Aquarion are in Z Tier for the following reasons:

* Vengir obviously plays better on small maps or in games with lots of players e.g. 5v5 or 2v2v2v2v2s as those games are usually not season games their relevance is usually low.
* Aquarion is just very inconsistent. They can't get Giant Battleships, but their tridents are insanely strong. However, their resources are poor so you will lose many games before doing anything significant.

### 2. General Tips

Next up are some general tips regarding the eco tribes except Luxidoor. I know few people do this but I wanted to note this explicitly:

#### 2.1. Turn 0

On turn 0 you should ALWAYS go for a level 2 capital with +1 income! Unless you're playing one of those 8+ player matches there's no reason to go for explorer and I will now explain why not to go for a 2nd warrior:

If you go for a warrior on turn 0 you're paying 2 stars. However, you're also missing out on those 2 stars you would've earned with your capital otherwise already so the warrior already costs you 4 stars.

What is crucial and game changing though is that usually by turn 3 you want to capture your 2nd village if the game is going well.

If you go for level 2 by turn 0 you have 11 (or 10 in the case of :Zebasi: ) stars, meaning you can react to your resources by going for 2 techs usually (in the case of Bardur usually for Forestry + Mathematics by chopping 1 forest) and also saving a lot of stars by getting those techs before the costs increase from capturing the village.

If you went for a warrior on turn 0 you will have 9 resources and thus taking this option away from you for having a warrior one turn earlier.

Your next goal should be to get your cities to level 3 or to get a city to level 5.

Level 4 is useless most of the time as it increases your income only by 1 for 4 resources (so usually 8-10 stars) without adding any benefits. So only use lvl 4 as a means to get to lvl 5!

#### 2.2. Why is lvl 3 so good

Let's look at lvl 2 first to see just how good lvl 3 actually is:

Usually you pay 4 stars to get a city to lvl 2. Unless you're choosing an explorer most of the time your income will increase by 2. This means that after 2 turns your investment of 4 stars has already been returned.

Now if you go for level 3 it will usually cost you 6 and your income only increases by 1. BUT you will also choose the option to get 5 stars, effectively making the level-up cost only 1. This means you have no real downsides to go for level 3.

In case of emergency walls are also really good to hold out until your teammates can help with reinforcements if they're doing well.

#### 2.3. Popgrowth vs Bordergrowth

Now I know a lot of people prefer Bordergrowth over Popgrowth. It's just cooler to have a lot of resources and choices available. This choice usually ends to a lot of people losing since there is no real reason to go for Bordergrowth.

Since Popgrowth grants you 3 pop you it is essentially worth 3 resources (6 stars) I made it a rule for myself to go for Popgrowth when I'm in doubt unless I have some indicators to go for Bordergrowth.

Some indicators may be:

* Whales
* Many resources, generally 5+ (especially forests for chopping/lumber hut flexibility + better sawmill spawns)
* No close villages (the space wouldn't be taken up by other villages anyway)
* City zones (can be useful to limit the opponents village size if they didn't capture a nearby village yet but will soon)

What I like to do as a successful strategy is to check on turn 0 IF and how I can get to a giant in my capital the fastest.

If it is possible, I will usually try to do that. Note: Getting a giant early is good for military AND economy. Your capital at level 5 gives you 7 stars per turn (+the monument for the first giant) so it is money well spent. Afterwards I will either rush roads or sailing, depending on the spawn, to attack the enemy while improving my economy.

If it is not possible roads are usually a good investment to expand as fast as possible with an explorer in the 2nd or 3rd village (explorer can also be good if you go for a giant early) while leveling your cities to level 3.

### 3. Monuments

I see many people using monuments to spawn giants in order to push enemy troops off their cities. I think this is the wrong approach. What I prefer to do is to use the monuments as fast as possible to either get a city to level 3 and use those 5 stars OR to get a giant within 1-2 turns of receiving the monument. (Ai-mo is good practice for this, easy T7 giant and another by T9)

Why save the monuments?

* Usually if the enemy has his troops on your cities you are already losing. Polytopia is a game where you can snowball heavily, if you don't mess up and once the enemy has his troops in your base you are kinda doomed.

Why spend them right away?

* Snowball argument: If you manage to put your giants on the enemy’s cities then you won’t need to use your monuments to push the enemy off your cities.
* Economy argument: Let's say you get your first monument by turn 7. If you used it right away, you would increase your economy by (at least) 1 for every turn that follows. If you meet the enemy for the first time at turn 12 and then he manages to siege one of your cities by turn 14 you already missed out on 7 stars! Plus maybe he doesn’t even siege you early on making you miss out on a lot more.
* If you happen to get a monument right when your city is being sieged a good thing can be to surround the enemy with troops and then produce a giant. If the troop on the city can't move anywhere it will just vanish, leading to cheap giant kills sometimes.

### 4. Ruins

I see many players underestimating the power of ruins, neglecting to even spend 2 stars to capture them with a warrior.

Ruins are worth a lot of stars and usually very powerful in the early game.

Just some examples:

* Nomadic peoples (free resource): worth 6 stars (3 resources) and it gives you more giant potential as those resources appear "out of nowhere".
* 10 stars: quite obvious and especially early give you 1-2 techs of your choice that can be very useful.

Some general rules concerning ruins:

* If you uncovered the 5x5 around a ruin (2 tiles in all direction) then there’s no chance to get an explorer.
* Starting from turn 5 you can get giants and battleships from ruins.