im not about to walk you through every single level but i am going to tell you how a pro would do it. use the pause button, you can build and set things to arm, disarm, move, whatever. this helps you greatly. pause at the very start of a level. look around, do you see a spot that your city would do better in? higher ground maybe? move there. pause to build you network of collectors. unpause when they are built and slowly each one should turn on at relitively the same time, spiking your energy gain and getting your city to build much faster. remember one thing, creeper flows like liquids, if it hits a wall and reaches the other side, it wont go to the opposite side, it will keep going down, this is hard to understand but it can leave some safe spots for you to move a tower to, have it fight, then move it back. i developed a new strategy used for assaults that works great. get 4 blasters, fully charge them, and pause. move both the blasters so when you move them again, you make sure they land in the same spot. this way, when they land, they can fight hard. put two in one spot and two behind them facing the same way with a 2 by 8 space in between, thats enough for two collectors. i call this the 'leap frog' method. have two hop over the other two. the other two should be clearing it out so the two assaulting arent hitting as heavy of an area. with two you get double firepower, more range, and a lethal combo. then, build a collector inbetween the 4 towers. once the collector is done, move the other two over and then build a collector between them. keep doing this and with collectors to resupply them, the tower will reach the creeper spawn fast and effectively. i would recommend building a speed farm before you do this because the speed will make their resupply rapid, speeding up the overall process. this method works great on maps without spore attacks. on spore attacks, make sure you blanket everything UNDER their range. spores come from where the creepers are to you, and that is usually from up to you. if your things are inside or under the range of the sams, your good. do the leapfrog and push the sams forward when you can too. on the last level you get drone technology. if you can build a farm in safety, pause, and have a bombing raid, you can easily wipe the enemy out. i have not unlocked the last weapon yet, it is a '?' and it says something like 'expect the unexpected.' im not sure what you need to do to get this but i think it involves score or something. if someone knows comment on my profile how please =] anyways, i build my collectors horizontal and vertical whenever i can. this leaves space to build speed, storage, weapons your are going to move later, or even reactors =] with the leap frog strategy i shaved 10 minutes off two levels i tested it on, cells, and the next level i think was called 'action' good luck, i hope you unlock the '?' weapon =]
defend areas where the creepers can hit you with sams, blasters, and mortars if needed. this isnt what i would do on the last level but, anyways, once you are defended, make a HUGE ammount of blasters with some mortars too. 10 blasters and 5 mortars is a good amount to win the game. get them in a bunched up position and try to move them so they land in the same, or close to the same position, this will help them shoot in sync and get rid of all the creepers =] you will have so much firepower you wont need to get immidiate collectors to stop the enemy. get collectors in or use relays to get the power in faster. then, get you armada charged again and send them to the next creeper spawn either leaving one blaster behind or making one to keep the creepers at bay =] i shaved a couple minutes off cells with this.
sonic, yeah thats true. one blaster stops one creeper spawner. and another things, i was COMPLETELY wrong about mortars. if you get 4 blasters and 4 mortars, the blasters hit close, defending the rest and the mortars blow EVERYTHING up! and by the way, the '?' weapon is probably only used when you are in the $10 purchased version.
Here's another question I didn't find answered when I read the first two comments you made... :/ How do I get a (so called) starting position in the last level (the bowl), I just can't seem to get my basis up and running before those creepers come in and destroy the whole thing... I tried several things... build a vast network of collectors first, then some blasters... The other way around... Tried to get the technology first, then build a network and blasters... I just can't get it right... *silently weeps*
The Bowl: Move your city (the same way you move blasters) right up in front of the trench slightly off to one side or the other and quickly build a line of collectors across that strip of ground. That should give you enough energy to build 3 blasters. Those blasters should hold off the creeper if you put one on either side and then move the one in the middle side to side as necessary. Build 2 sams to defend against spores. Expand your collector network down to the base of the bowl once you're sure that your front line won't fall. Move your city back to it's starting point (make sure you don't break the network.) build another blaster and another sam on the frontline. Acquire tech. This gives you a stable starting point. Good luck from there.
It's possible to complete the bowl without moving odin city. It's much faster too, cos you control the whole of the bowl from the start and u get lots of energy from that. Here's a 13:08 timing screenshot.
Actually I recorded a video but youtube's not cooperating with me so whatever. I rushed to get the drone tech while expanding my collectors. Keep starvation down. Build 2 drones quick. I started building my drones once my collection reached about 2-3, enough for them to build and charge up together. Once they're done, keep sending them to bomb the trench, one on each side. Easier to have blasters cos the blasters do it automatically BUT drones keep the creeper at bay for much less energy. So just keep bombing, expand, build SAMs, build 2 more drones if you want to be safe so the trench can be continually bombed at all times. Once you have your base up and running you can handle the rest.
tbh this walkthrough is a little tacky, just reading and reading and reading and reading, very boring and I didn't bother going halfway.
For the Bowl it's quite simple, start the construction of a collector connecting to Odin but as close to the Drone Technology, build 1 to either side of your city, keep building collectors at maximum CONNECTED distance until you reach the Technology, while it's queued up build another collector on the opposite side of your city.
That's just to get the tech.
From there build a Drone wherever connected to part of your city, let it charge power, by then it'd be in a small fallen part of the map, nearly at the center, bomb it away!
It's good to build 2 Drones while you are still stabilizing your resources, but if you take a hit by a Spore or 2 at the start, don't worry, that's why it's best to put your drones nearest to Odin, so it would attack collectors or something else, maybe.
While pushing the Creeper away via Drones, try to get to the center, placing SAMs, and then Blasters, but the only problem is the Creeper flooding and wiping you down, if you don't use the Drone(s)
Having 2 Blasters in the center of the center will push them away a small amount, which I build a Connector down there and start spacing out the Blasters.
A great tactic to use after all of that is the Portable movement.
With alot of resources, build many, many... many Blasters inside your safest area and let them be charged, send them to a Creeper-occupied area, having a connector near them is very helpful so they can be resupplied, but building relays where they secured the area can help (but you may want some speeds for this).
9:29 complete. With video. My hypercam screwed up halfway, 3:13-3:17 of the video, but nothing important there.. <object width="425" height="344"><aram name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/jKA63ipMTh8&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><aram name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><aram name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/jKA63ipMTh8&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>