Build smart defenses
While the adage “The best defense is a good offense” is generally true in Impossible
Creatures, there are still several methods of putting together a stiff resistance
and solid defense that can hold at bay even the most determined attacker. The drawback
to defending constantly is that it can rarely be sustained – and you’ll never destroy
anything across the map by defending your own side the whole game. An aggressive
opponent can often take over resource sites while a defensive player locks themselves
into their base. If, however, you think of defense as the prelude to a good counterattack,
you’re thinking along the right lines for an Impossible Creatures player.
There are some tricks to building your base to help defenses. Putting structures
like Lightning Rods and Creature Chambers around your lab can help protect it from
melee attacks. Similarly, build a few bramble fences around Sound Beam and Anti-Air
towers to create another layer to attack through. Creating layers of defenses helps
slow down attacking players. Don’t build your first wall right next to your base,
and don’t build walls close together or they can be destroyed simultaneously by
artillery units with their splash damage.
Use versatile creatures
Direct range units are very versatile because they can shelter in among your structures
and deliver devastating attacks to melee units; enemy artillery units, however,
can make short work of these creatures so be ready to react to this threat. Artillery
units are the worst units for base defense as their artillery can damage friendly
units or structures, so keep these creatures well away from your base. There are
other special abilities that are very desirable to defensive units including Regeneration
(units heal themselves), Stink (to protect your units from range and artillery attacks)
and Poison (to slow down and damage incoming enemy units).
If you are defensively minded, it’s also a good idea to research some of the building
upgrades. You can boost the health of your Lab from 8000 to 12000 to18000 by researching
Advanced Structures and Building Integrity. Your lab can take a lot more damage,
and give you extra time for defense.
Counterattack
The surest sign of a good defense is that it leaves you strong enough to thwart
an attack and immediately counterattack, hopefully before your opponent has time
to rebuild. Immediately begin counterattacking your enemy while you replace the
units you’ve lost.
Time
In RTS games, time is the resource that every player has equal amounts of, but the
players that use time efficiently tend to do better. Players who are good at managing
their time in the game will gather resources more efficiently, have all their Henchmen
working, spend their resources on creatures and deliver quick orders with the use
of hotkeys. Now, not all players are like that, but there are some lessons to be
learned that even new players can use.
Resources
Having a big pile of resources means nothing. You should constantly be turning those
resources into buildings, research and creatures as quickly as you can. You can
brag all you want at the end of the game about out-resourcing someone, but it won’t
matter much unless you actually won! Spend like there’s no tomorrow!
Henchmen
In order to keep your resources coming in quickly build lots and lots of Henchmen.
It’s typical to find 20 Henchmen in a 50 unit cap game, and 30 or more in a 75 unit
cap game. While Henchmen take up slots in your unit cap that could be used for creatures,
they can gather resources so quickly that replacing lost creatures is much faster.
The moral of the story is that the player with 20 Henchmen can probably replace
30 creatures twice as fast as the player with 10 Henchmen and 40 creatures. 75%
of the work in 50% of the time means a three to two advantage when your army is
first at full strength.
Lots of Henchmen also give you lots of flexibility in building. They can produce
defensive structures very quickly, and if need be, can also be drummed into a combat
role. Henchmen can throw a mean punch, and many an attack has been soundly beaten
with a swarming mob of Henchmen.
Hotkeys, special abilities
Learning a set of common hotkeys can really speed up your interaction with the game.
Designating control groups is one of the easiest to learn and has the most practicality
because it allows you to select or focus on a group of units without needing to
move the camera. As discussed above, you can set control groups to Creature Chambers
to speed up your unit production. Try learning some of the hotkeys for special abilities
you use commonly as this will speed up the activation of special abilities in combat.
Instead of selecting the unit and hitting a button on the taskbar, which might take
a couple of seconds, you could select units as a group, and fire their abilities
with a hotkey, saving you precious seconds with every order you issue. There are
also a series of hotkeys for selecting different creature types (air, land, sea,
Henchmen), which can be very useful in the swirling scrum of battle. Impossible
Creatures can be played entirely with the mouse, but starting to learn a few hotkeys,
or even modifying the hotkeys to suit your play style, will provide instant returns
by making you a more efficient player.
Be prepared for anything
Designing an army in Impossible Creatures is an iterative process. No army will
be perfect the first time out. Using tools like the Army Analyzer can identify weaknesses
in your army, but only in a general sense. As a player, you can do a far better
job of analyzing your particular army and fixing any potential weaknesses. You could
be a fast player, manage your resources well and build like a machine, but if you
deploy a poorly balanced army, you’re fighting with one hand tied behind your back.
