So After Not Playing Much For A Loooong Time...

[Kayedon]

The only playing I've done over the past few months is getting myself up to Mission 9 on the Eden Campaign (Hard, of course) and a brief partial game with two members. So I figured I would challenge myself because to hell with the 100+ games I've purchased and haven't finished, I'm playing Outpost 2!

So after a few brief attempts at Eden Starship on Hard, I realised I sucked too hard and couldn't keep enough resources to build enough of an army to repel Plymouth. So I gave myself a challenge - move to the enclosed base right north of your starting point and work from there.

Did it work? Oh yeah. It worked really, really well. I was able to keep base-sprawl down by the fact that the common and magma are right inside the area instead of scattered all over the valley, and the choke point formed by the map edge and lava (with the rock "hole" right above the edge of the lava) made it so only a few enemies came through at a time with the rest running around trying to squeeze through.

All in all, it was incredibly fun.

The "old" base, marks before being brought back online by the local Convec.
Most of the "new" base, minus the Solar Power and some morale structures.

These shots were taken around mark 3500 (I like taking my time...). Only the central Plymouth base remains, and I've moved into the two other bases (they split their attack between the two, sort of. I moved a Convec down there to reclaim the old base just for the hell of it. The Tokamaks are below 150 health, and I haven't repaired them since I abandoned the base, which was a little before the lava destroys the mine above your Smelter.

So.... yeah, I don't really know why I posted this.

[TH300]

Thanks. I always find it interesting to know unusual strategies.

[Bonk]

I still don't know exactly where you were, haven't got the map memorised!

Do you have a screenshot of the minimap?

[Highlander]

It should be right north of the original base Bonk.

Nice tactic Kayedon. I've used that spot myself a few times, but that has usually been at a later stage. Will have to try this myself again

[Hooman]

I've done that a few times, but I always felt like I did better keeping my original base. But then, I usually try to attack the computer before they have a chance to fortify their bases. Spending time and money building a whole new base makes that a little difficult, so I've had to use different strategies when expanding.
 

[Kayedon]

Bonk, you start in the southwest corner of the map, then there's a volcano right above your base that blows up pretty fast. The spot I'm talking about is the grey area a few blocks north of the volcano. You have to restart a few times to make sure there's a common ore spot up there, though.

Hooman, I'm not too great at the game, and there was too much of an ore toss-up for me to make a decision. On Hard, you start with a 1-bar in your base, and even with two smelters (or a third wedged in there inconveniently) you'll never have enough for an army. There's a one or two bar to the far right of your base but that gets attacked by incoming forces. Alternatively, there's either a common or rare south of your base (sadly, no Magma on hard or this wouldn't even be an issue). So it's either, have no rare ore but plenty of common, or be swimming in gold without a piece of copper.

I just chose to relocate, since if you tap the 3-bar right above your smelter you'll hit 10k common before the lava blows up the mine, 3 trucks, only building the command centre/structure factory, an agridome, two residences, standard lab, university, and medical centre as I did in the picture. If your timing is right you can knock out a vehicle factory and still leave with 10k, which is more than enough for a new smelter + a robo-miner.

Sadly, no other colony game is as well-suited to "alternative strategies" as this one (except Eden Population, a la move all your stuff to the far right and almost never get attacked).

[TH300]

Ever thought about using the 3bar common mine right north of your smelter on the lava rock to build an army? As you already figured out, it gives you much ore. You can use it for relocation, but you can also use it to defeat Plymouth early. You don't have to wait until you can build thors hammer. You don't even need emp. Just build a few laser lynxes and rush to the middle base and from there to the other bases. It works very well.

[Hooman]

Yeah, I normally go for the 3-bar mine right away. You can get quite a bit of ore out of it before it's destroyed. I make sure to have a backup mine already deployed on the safe 1-bar mine before the 3 bar mine is destroyed. That way I can reassign the trucks without downtime. I also usually start tubing towards the 2-bar mine to the right fairly early.

I usually don't start my attack until the AI starts to expand in the top left of the map. That base is easy to kill if you get it early. I've been less successful going for the main base right away, but I've done it a few times. Mostly, the timing just feels more natural to go for the expansion base first. The vehicles left over from that attack, plus new ones being built are then able to converge on the main base afterwards.
 

[Zardox Xheonov]

cool strategy. I tried placing my base there once, but i failed at the mission becuase i was a big new person at the time.

Now-a-days i usually rush to take out their north-most base in the corner of the map and expand to there for all the 3 bars and the useful bottlenecks.

Why i dont go for their main base was becuase i could never stand up to them early on... but before their little outpost could be completed i would always rush in and take advantage of the few combat units they had garrisoned.

I like your idea even more than mine, thanks for the input

[Hidiot]

I normally win it by rushing lasers and a few flares. Main base goes down first, and their first expansion usually hasn't built a factory yet or the factory didn't get to produce much yet.

[Lugia3]

You can also expand into the VERY bottem right corner. It would be tight but if you can hold it long enough to expand up north. Only 2-4 units can get through at a time so you have one hell of an advantage here.

The only problem is that space is massivly limited and the ore sucks. (if there is ore, I forgot) You have to realy rush to get there before the lava blocks off the field below Plymouth.