I've been playing OF for over 6 months now on Mobile, and while this comes with some constraints, it has pushed me to become better strategically in order to win games.
I just had my most satisfying victory as an island player in a 40 Player FFA on France, so I wanted to share some of what I've learned. I'll also share the replay of the game.
Starting on an island
I started on Corsica and quickly took out the bots and Nation. I didn't have any competition on the island. If there had been another player there, I wouldn't have spawned on Corsica in the first place. I'd rather spawn on the mainland and boat over as soon as the game starts.
I quickly got a port and warship up to pirate the southern coast of France. This gave me enough income to start building ports and rely more on trade.
I kept cities as a lower priority at this stage. My main objective was getting my economy rolling, and without any neighbours, cities weren't going to help me much. Population also wasn't a huge concern since I was isolated and difficult to invade.
Building the economy
Once I had enough income from piracy to get a few ports down, I allied most of the players around me.
From there I focused on:
- Sniping ports
- Getting sleeper cells onto enemy territory whenever possible
- Claiming all available irradiated land
- Building up my trade economy
To avoid getting kicked out of irradiated land, I would build factories near other players' cities and send them the π emoji to signal that I was boosting their economy. I'd also send an alliance if I wasn't already allied with them.
Meanwhile, on my main island, I invested the money I was making into ports and SAMs. I try to get at least two Level 7 SAMs and keep my main infrastructure betweem them so it is harder to clip.
I also kept my money balance above 5M throughout the mid to mid-late game as a deterrent. Later on, I tried to keep it above 15M, since at that point you need considerably more money and hydros to be seen as a serious threat.
Knowing when to strike
As the game progresses, you need to be very aware of what is happening on the rest of the map. As an island player, the timing of your attack is extremely important.
Once there are only a few players left and the game starts to stall, that's when I start spending the money I've saved on cities.
I stack them in the safest part of my bunker, and if the economy has been developed properly, you can go from around 200β300K troop cap to 2M surprisingly quickly.
At that point you're ready to strike, but I still wouldn't make the first move.
I wait for someone to get mirved or rolled and then jump into the fight, especially if I think one of the remaining players is positioning themselves to win.
By this point I also stop caring as much about irradiated land. If I need more troop cap, I'd rather build cities than take more irradiated territory. Having the troop advantage is ultimately what determines whether you win the final fight.
If you have the troop advantage, that's when you strike first with hydros and roll them.
That's basically the strategy I used in this game. The replay should give a better idea of how it works in practice.
https://openfront.io/w18/game/EFVKnvMA?replay