HOW TO PLAY XIPHIASTOO :captain: ::bluemoon:: :soldier:

Red Panda's Game Walk-through Nugget #1

Introduction

This nugget is here to teach you the mechanics and basic strategies of xiphiastoo. If you haven't played before, this is the ideal nugget for you!

I include a game walk-through as I discuss various topics.

I would like to thank Jools for volunteering in the non rated game which was subject of the walk-through.

I have chosen xiphiastoo as a the variant for discussion, because it has the complete capabilities. The other variants will all be similar

• Xiphiasyn - Opposition are hidden
• Xiphiastrey - The world is no holes
• Xiphiasteym - a team game
• Xiphias - a cut down version with no bombs or forcefields, but otherwise the same

The Start

At the start you can pick your favourite colour (don't pick orange, because that is mine ) ( Jools says purple is his as well )

and then you will be given three choices of start location. Each game the layout of the planets, and the start positions are different.

In this particular game, I chose my left most choice. I chose this because I wanted to be close but not too close to purple and allow me enough room to expand backwards. My bottom choice was the worst, as I could have been bottled up in a small area. I suspect purple would have chosen his middle choice for almost the same reason as me.

Pay particular attention in selection to areas where the planets thin down to less than 3 wide with no alternate path. These are very easy to defend, and you want to either reach them first, or at least make sure you are on the larger side of the universe.

Finances

The most critical thing in the game is managing your finances.

Please see the excellent nugget from Jools which gives lots of details on finances http://www.goldtoken.com/games/nuggets?id=62

But i will start with the basics. If you move your mouse over your own area, you can see there is a numbers 5 (0). This means that I have 5 golderos in my bank and each turn I gain 0 more golderos. You can see this in the following picture:

Your opponent will have 5(0) at the start too but if you hover over his area you will not be able to see anything. (When the game is finished you can see everybody's finances. It is strongly recommended that after you finish your game you replay the game and look at your opponents finances during the replay. By doing this replay you will become better at understanding finances)

Now, if you are losing money and get to 0 or below golderos in the bank you go bankrupt, which will likely lose you the game. (will explain later)

You can see the rocket (unknown photo). A rocket costs 2, and you will have 1 rocket per area, and it can not be moved. It has some defensive purposes early in the game, but generally is just a cost.

You also can see that you have a drone :drone:, this costs 2, and is your alien which you can move around.

You gain 1 golderos per turn per planet, so because you have 4 planets makes +4 and your costs are -2(rocket (unknown photo) ) -2(drone :drone: ) making a total of 0.

This is where the (0) came from.

Some players spend the effort to track finances of your opposition each move and place it in the yellow notes box. However, although beneficial, it can be complicated (and nearly impossible in xiphiasyn),

Your first move - EXPAND

Click on your drone. You can move each alien once per turn. The top of the board then says "Select a planet to move alien to". In the picture below I have highlighted green places I can move my alien to, however this green is not highlighted in the game



Click on any planet. You will notice that you can only move the alien to a planet which is

a) the planet in same area. You can see this does not help you financially (unless that planet has a virus explained later)

or

b) next to the area which the alien is in (whether grey - neutral or your opponents coloured planet )




you can not move to other planets and will not be able to do so. Only legal moves are given to you as an option.


You can see that by expanding, you now have 5 planets and costs remain same (rocket (unknown photo) , drone :drone: ) so you now have (+1) and hence you are gaining money each turn. On the start of my next turn, I will have 7 golderos (+1) unless my opponent does something.
(7 is calculated is 5 + 1 from my opponents turn, + 1 from my turn ).

I expand one more planet, and therefore have 7(+2). This can be seen in the picture below



Thus expanding is a way to make more money , and money is useful for building things. If you are not expanding you must have a very good reason (perhaps defensively) because as a general rule not expanding is a case of you falling behind to your opponent in finances and resources.

BUYING ALIENS

My next turn I will start at 11(+2). This was 7(+2) at end of my turn, +2 on Jools turn, +2 on my turn makes 11 (+2). You can see in the picture below that because I have 10 or more golderos, an option to buy a new alien appears.





To buy an alien , click on the buy an alien , and place the alien on any of your planets (except those with a virus on it). Aliens cost 10. You can see that Jools has already built his second alien. If you build your alien on top of your existing alien, or move one of your alien on top of an existing alien you will make a soldier :soldier:. The :soldier: can then be moved just like a normal alien, but costs 6. Because I have 6 planets. 1 (unknown photo) (-2) 1 :soldier: (-6) I have 6 revenue and costs of 8, so am at (-2 ) thus my 11 went down to 1 (because i bought the alien ) so I am at 1 (-2) as per the picture below.





Even when I move my :soldier:, I will have 1 extra revenue, but be 1 (-1) and soon bankrupt and out of the game. Because of that, I will undo and just build an alien and expand two normal aliens. This will leave me at 1(+2) and will be 5(+2) on my next turn as seen in the following picture.



At these early stage of the game, people are generally fairly evenly matched

While you are learning the game, and even if you are experienced, always look at your finances. If things go wrong, then undo and start your turn again. (Note in xiphiasyn, you can not undo, so it is better to play another variant first until you are more experienced)

As you saw, building a :soldier: cost a lot and is the move that was most dangerous. Soldiers are very useful later in the game, but building one too early is a common fatal mistake beginners make.

The other point to note is that buying an alien cost me 10, and after the move, I went from 11(+2) to 1(+2)
If I didn't buy an extra alien, you would have gone from 11(+2) to 11(+3) so you are seemingly worse off by buying an alien,
but that is only short term. In the long term, multiple aliens can expand quicker allowing you greater finances

	Tactic Buy and Expand			Tactic Save Money
Turn	Finances	Number of Aliens	Number of Planets	Finances	Number of Aliens	Number of PLanets
end of 1	1(+2)	2	8	11(+3)	1	7
start of 2	5(+2)	2	8	17(+3)	1	7
end of 2	5(+4)	2	10	17(+4)	1	8
start of 3	13(+4)	2	10	25(+4)	1	8
end of 3	3(+5)	3	13	25(+5)	1	9
start of 4	13(+5)	3	13	35(+5)	1	9
end of 4	3 (+7)	4	17	35(+6)	1	10
start of 5	17(+7)	4	17	47(+6)	1	10
end of 5	7(+10)	5	22	47(+7)	1	11
start of 6	27(+10)	5	22	61(+7)	1	10
	Tactic Buy and Expand
end of 6	7(+13)	7	29	1 (+1)	7	17
start of 7	33(+13)	7	29	3 (+1)	7	17

So on turn 6, if you stop the saving money , and buy aliens with your saved money, you can see the player that expanded earlier has a 12 planet advantage, and even though there is the same amount of aliens at the end of turn 6, at the start of the 7th turn, because of those extra planets (and extra revenue) the initial expanding player has money to buy 3 more aliens than the initial saver. This financial resource advantage will turn into a battle field advantage.

So as a general rule, hoarding money is counter productive , unless you have a strong strategic reason for it

My next turn

The following details the position at the start of my turn:



I am now given an opportunity to take one of Jools' planet



You can see that after I took Jools' planet, I now have more planets than him. I have 5(+4) while he is (+3) .. Thus i am gaining resources quicker than him, which over time will lead to a larger advantage. Thus taking planets and avoiding having your planets taken is something which you should try to do.

At the start of the next turn, I try to take more of Jools' planets, but I can't. My drone can not attack any planet which is occupied by Jool's drone, or any planet which is next to Jools' drone. I have marked these in the picture below with an a, that I can attack the empty planet marked b even though it is next to Jools' drone. I will need a soldier :soldier: or captain :captain: to attack those guarded planets

note that the letters a b c d do not appear in the game, they are only their for explanation




If you notice the three planets marked with c next to the rocket, are guarded by the rocket, so a drone can not attack them. The neutral planets marked with d, are not guarded, but if purple takes them they become guarded. A soldier :soldier: or captain :captain: is needed to attack a rocket or a planet guarded by a rocket, so therefore rockets have defensive value besides a cost

The only way for me to attack the guarded planets, is to build a soldier , even though it will cost me more in upkeep. I do this and it can be seen in the picture below



You can see that I have 2 more planets than Jools, and despite having to pay for a soldier I am 3(+2).
Jools is (+4) so he can close the gap in terms of resources. But he currently can't defend my soldier, as both his drones and his rockets can be destroyed by my soldier.

My soldier is only able to be captured by a captain :captain:

Jools, builds a solider. This soldier guards all of Jools planets which are next to it, and marked with a in the picture below



Now, I have only 7(+2), I can not build a new drone, but I can move my existing drone on top of my soldier building a captain. After making the captain I can move it. A captain is powerful, and can kill Jools solider (or places guarded by soldier ) but costs 20 to maintain. This can be seen in the following picture where I have taken Jools soldier.

You can see after I do it, my finances are 7(-9) This would mean that if I did this move, I would be bankrupt. Although after bankrupt I would be 0(+10) . This would be calculated from 13 planets but one would have a virus which stops revenue , 1 rocket. Because of the (+10) I would not lose the game. If it was 0(+9) or less, then I would lose the game.

Now, If I calculated Jools' money correctly, he would have 11(+2). Because I have split his planets into two areas, he has 1 rocket per area. His 11 would be split into 6 and 5.. so the area on the bottom 6(+4) and the area on the top 5(+1)

Because on his turn the 6 + 4 becomes 10, he is not out of the game, and can in fact counter my move, which could put me out of the game. If all areas are below 10 golderos and you have no aliens of any type , then you have no aliens, and can not buy an alien, so you lose the game

Splitting areas is good, as it gives him extra rockets (each rocket drains the area by 2 golderos )

The difference between winning and losing can be as little as 1 golderos (if he was 5(+4) he would be eliminated, as on his turn he would not have 10 to build an alien and would not have an alien) Thus if my financial calculations on his finances were accurate, it was very close. But I am not in a desperate position, so will not do such a risky move, so i undo

Instead, I take his unguarded planet, and move my soldier into a defensive position as in the following picture



My planets surrounding the soldier are protected by the solider (including my planet with a drone on it) (marked with an a). Thus his soldier can not attack any of those planets, making me fairly strong defensively , however my soldier is stuck in its current location performing defensive duties. On his turn I expect him to be 12(+1) so I have a planet numeric advantage, a firepower advantage, and I am growing my finances quicker.

On his move, he kept his soldier defending, with the positions around his soldier guarded, meaning I couldn't attack as per the following picture



however, if I kill his soldier with a captain, then there is nothing guarding the planet with marked a, so I can then take it. Note that I had to play the attack in the correct order, as moving the drone first wouldn't have worked as the planet was guarded. After I do this the situation in the game is as follows



As you can see in the picture I am 3(-9) so my aliens will die if I save the move. Jools position has been split, halving his money into both areas. His top area is (0) while the bottom area is (+2). You will need to look very carefully, there is a rocket underneath his drone on the top area.

After my turn, you can see in the picture below there are two planets hollowed out where my aliens died.



These hollowed out planets turn into virus the next turn, and while hollowed out or a virus earn no money so even though I have 15 planets, 2 of them are not earning money so I am 13 - rocket 2 = (+11) Because I am more than +10 I am not eliminated even though I have no aliens, however on my next turn I will have just 11 to spend

On Jools turn he reconnected his areas. If you notice in the picture below , he moved his drone from the top area, to join the bottom area.
thus his rocket from the top area stayed, and the one from the bottom area disappeared.



If you notice the arrow on the picture, it is a virus, from my dead alien. If not taken by landing on it, it will spread to adjacent empty planets either mine, Jools' or neutral. I can not build an alien on it, but I can build somewhere else and move on it.

However, I choose to try to defend my position from the upcoming purple advance, as in the following. By now you can see how my drone is defending which planets, and yes, the planet with the virus is also protected.

FORCEFIELDS

After Jools next move, because I have 15 golderos I can place a forcefield, and the option is highlighted to choose from in the picture below. You can also see that the virus has spread



The virus will keep spreading each turn randomly, and can soon grow quite large and quickly. I have two planets not earning income, but it is not critical for me yet.

A forcefield costs 15 to buy, but on each turn it is free of maintenance. Once placed it can not be moved. You can not place a forcefield on a virus or on your rocket, and virus can not move through forcefields just like they can't move through aliens.

Forcefields have the defensive value just like a soldier :soldier: and so they protect all your own planets next to them just like a soldier would. Thus you need a captain :captain: to capture a forcefield

On my turn I choose to build a forcefield, and will also take one of Jools planets which he left unguarded.

You can see the result in the picture below, and note my money went down from 18 to 3, but I am still +9 , Jools is still +4 so I am growing quicker than him,




The areas marked with an a (including my drone and those with virus ) are protected by the forcefield, so Jools would need to use a captain which would bankrupt him. This free's up my drone to expand, rather than be stuck in the same planet for defending.

On my next move, you can see the picture below that the virus has expanded quite quickly to both Jools planet and neutral planet



I will attempt to hurt purple more, by splitting his areas again. To attack his planet guarded by a rocket, I need a soldier, and I do so

So now you can see, that purple is split into 2, with half his money in the bottom, and half the money in the single planet. You notice, that an area of 1 planet has no rocket, so it is going to slowly gain money each turn as it has no expenses. This single planet can not be built on (you need a rocket in an area to build) however, if purple connects back to the single area, then the money in that single area is added back in to his total and is ready to be use.


So when I take that single planet, all the money in that planet disappears (it doesn't go to me, but it stops purple using it) as in the picture below



After Jools turn, you can see virus is spreading,



I will take out a virus (and stop virus spreading towards me as virus can't go through aliens) as well as guard my planets near the top with my soldier. The droid in front of the forcefield is protected by a forcefield, so Jools will need a captain to take any of my front line planets.

BOMBS

A few turns later, I am given the option to buy a bomb, bombs cost 20 , so this option only appears when you have enough money



generally bombs are not worth worrying about as a beginner, because there are usually better things to spend your money on. (more aliens to expand, or forcefields to aid defense. Bombs can be placed in any area of yours which does not contain an alien. It can be on top of a virus, it can be on top of a forcefield or on top of a rocket or any of your empty planets. Virus can not move through bombs, and you can not move your own alien on top of a bomb. However if Jools moves on top of the bomb, the alien which moved on top of the bomb is blown up, and turned into a virus (unless on top of a rocket or forcefield).

Why would Jools do this ? Well he can not see your bombs, he can see only his own. The advantage of bombs is either getting rid of the hard to kill captian, or causing a miscalculation in finances to stop a suicide attack leaving them exposed.

In the following picture you can see I have placed a bomb. Jools would not see the green, to move on the planet, he would need a captain,so the bomb is a captain killer. (Making him lose resources).






As you can see from the following picture, Jools did activate the bomb, and you can see that a virus has formed in that location

I take the virus planet (needed a soldier because of his rocket) and some of his planets as well as improving my defense.




But have a look at the four planets I took,




I could have taken the planets in 10 possible orders

1	A B C D
2	A B D C
3	A D C B
4	A D B C
5	B A D C
6	B A C D
7	B D A C
8	B D C A
9	B C D A
10	B C A D

9 of the orders would have just taken 4 planets from Jools, 1 of them would have taken 4 planets from Jools and halved his money! It is always better
to take resources off your opponent, so halving his money was the ideal

you can see if I had used A D C I would have isolated one of his planets as per picture below




This placed half his money in that planet which i can then take, meaning that money is lost to him. Thus the order you take planets is very important. Looking for opportunities to split areas and then take the money is very common way of limiting resources of your opponent and is one of the keys to success.

SELF DESTRUCT

One of the options given to you is to self destruct an alien

Self destructing a drone costs you 15, and will kill all drones next to it, but will not kill soldiers or captains . Self destruction has no effect on forcefields or rockets, but all drones next to the alien plus the alien which is self destructed will be destroyed, and if they are not on a forcefield or rocket, a virus will be created in there spot.

You can see 6 virus were created, while Jools' soldier was unharmed. Self Destructing a solider :soldier: (cost 30 golderos) will kill all drones and soldiers which are next to that soldier, but leave captains untouched. Self destructing a captain :captain: (cost 45 golderos) will destruct all aliens next to that captain . This is one of just 3 ways (along with bombs, and nukes) to kill Captains.

Generally self destructing aliens is mainly done to get rid of captains, the only other usual reason is to reduce your maintenance cost (e.g. if you have too many drones, and not enough planets to expand into )

with some virus clean up, and defensive forcefield. leaves me at (+22), while Jools is (+6),, Thus I am well in front, and gaining many more resources per turn.

NUKES aka MISILES

A few turns later, I have saved 100 golderos. with the front line guarded by both players as in the picture below

I could upgrade my soldier to a captain which would cost me more resources to maintain but also be able to kill his soldier or I could self destruct my soldier which would kill mine as well, or I could use a nuke (aka missile) . Normally I would upgrade to a captain but in this game I will do the nuke to nuke his soldier. Nukes work by selecting any of your aliens. After you do the nuke the alien will not be able to move again.

so after I choose "launch a missile" It will ask you to pick a location

you can choose any location which is an alien of your opponent. I could choose the soldier, or any of his drones. You can see that nukes can get to aliens which are not on the front line. A nuke could therefore be used to take out enemy defensive position. A nuke is one of the 4 ways to kill a captain, (other is bomb , selfdestruct , or cut off and starve finances) and the only way to kill a captain which is in a defensive position


You can see the virus caused by the nuked drone ( yellow arrow) and that my captain guards the planets marked with A



Jools has only 2 choices to kill my captain, as I am using it for defense and not directly next to his planet. I am not going to step on his bomb, and he can't get close enough to self destruct, so that he can either attack through where the white line , which will split my area into 2, and causing the area with the captain to have potentially not enough finances to support the captain, hence starving the captain to death

or he could use a nuke.

Note that if I can build another captain on my forcefield 3 planets below my existing captain, then that captain would guard additional planets, and Jools will have no way to cut their finances, meaning nukes are his only alternative. Often games arise where each player has captains in defensive position to stop advances

Note, I have positioned my :drone: so that Jools can take it with his :soldier: but this is my intent.

THE FINAL PUSH

Jools in fact falls for my trap, taking my drone and positioning his soldier towards the bottom

I cut Jools into 3. You should by now understand the order which my attacks happened

I first halved his money isolating a planet , and then ate the isolated planet. I then split him into 2 areas, each with 1/4 of his original money. The area with his soldier is (-4) while his other area is (+2). I am hoping that the (-4) will kill the soldier. If I had cut the soldier off first, or not isolated the single planet, that area would have 1/2 the money not 1/4 and the solider would possibly have lived

Sure enough the solider died due to starvation, causing another virus to form, That southern area is now (+1) so not a real danger to me,

In just 2 more turns, all of Jools areas are less than 10 golderos, he has no alien, and is earning less than (+10) so he is out, and the game is over and
I am victorious.

Summary

So in short, this nugget has shown the basics of all the features of xiphiastoo, It is really quite a fun game.

Once you have mastered these fundamentals , I strongly suggest you read http://www.goldtoken.com/games/nuggets?id=129 and try out a multiplayer games.