They Are Billions - Zombies Meet AOE

So, this looks a bit like a more complex and involved TD game. Or is that just what it looks like to me and it’s actually more of a traditional RTS where you need to have your focus spread over a bunch of different things at the same time?

I’m trying to play on 75% difficulty and getting rolled right around the 25 day mark.

In my last game I thought I was doing well but one of the bloated zombies single handedly took out my entire defense and the subsequent swarm overtook my colony :(

Wow, you can get taken out by a single zombie? I don’t know if this is the game for me, I think I’d seriously suck at it.

It’s the first time I encountered this particular one (probably because I usually wipe before I even reach 200 colonists) but as the game progresses you get more and more special zombies that show up to wreck you.

I get the feeling that every single Zombie archetype in L4D games will show up sooner or later.

Early acces game with little or no balancing yet… Don’t worry about things like that just now.

Think of a turtling base build in a standard RTS with a single squad of units that you use to slowly push out into the map. Most of your attention is within your base except when you are pushing with that squad.

Yes, but really only if it gets to your houses to start infecting. Didn’t take me more than one wipe to realize that my houses shouldn’t be on the edge of my base and must stay guarded. Building multi-layered defenses is something I know I should do to help contain an outbreak, but I keep demolishing the old perimeter as I push out. It’s worked so far, but I also haven’t gotten to the end game swarm yet. I’m sure I will this game thanks to a really nice map. There are only 5 entrances to my base and plenty of resources within that. At this point I’m only building out to put in little fire bases to cover my entrance. If anyone gets in, though, I’m probably screwed.

Not really. The zombie that is being referred to is a big fat one. He is strong and takes a lot of damage. If your city gate is undefended or very lightly defended by Rangers he is going to eventually bust through and keep on going. Against a few Soldiers, Lucifer or better unit and that fatty is toast. By the time you see those guys your gates should not be defended by Rangers.

Thanks for the info everybody. Seems like a natural fit for me since I’m a natural born turtler that isn’t quite sick of zombies yet. I’ll probably just have to play on “baby’s first RTS” difficulty.

Played this last night on 55% difficulty to start. Oops. Got overrun on day, uh, 6 both times. Haven’t played RTS games in years so I was taking my time looking around and scouting a bit. No more of that!

Fun game though…work more at it tonight!

Tom will be streaming this tonight!

Is there a way to rotate the camera? Didn’t see one, but I might be blind.

Lost my first game on day 6. It was going ok I thought, but as others have said, once they get one dwelling, there was no stopping them. I thought the route they came from was blocked by a rock outcropping, but apparently not.

Sounds like this could be a good game, but I think I’ll let things shake out in early access and wait for the final product. I like to turtle and don’t mind killing some zombies.

Granted I have only played one game, but I thought it was pretty well polished for early access. The mechanics aren’t difficult and there is a help screen that covers everything. You can also lower the difficulty to make it pretty easy as well. Pausing to give orders also helps a lot if you like to think about things and read all the tool tips.

The only part that screamed EA to me was the options screen. Not much there.

Is this officially the first early access game that Tom has admitted to playing? Must be really special!

More likely due to it being really zombie!

I just lost again, having neglected my colonies defenses in the early game.

Offworld Trading Company was his first EA game.

I’m loving this game but it is kicking my ass. I sure wish the ironman mode was optional. One of the best parts of Rimworld is reloading to see if you can overcome adversity with a different tactic - it’s a shame the same isn’t true here. I fear I’m going to burn out repeating the early game after another couple days.

You can backup the save files to a different directory & restart as many times as you want by renaming them.

An epic conclusion to my last game.The final horde triggered early at 91 days and it was as close as you could possibly get to losing but still pull out the win. They broke through on the north, south and west at parts of the wall. My executors did the vast majority of the work so all but the northern breakout was contained, though at high cost as many of my troops died plugging these breakthroughs. The northern one however was significant and they poured into my base. Building after building fell and I finally started demolishing buildings in front of the horde. Led by a half of dozen titans left, my last 20 troops stopped them about a block from my command center.

It was a win but that is really in name only. A good one third of my base was laid to waste.

Survival is the only win that matters in the zombie apocalypse.

I keep getting to lax in my defenses and the next thing I know, there is a small mob forcing a breakthrough where I have insufficient force.