Beginner's strategy guide : Economy[ | ]
In this article, I will present the economy system in Prismata. Due to the high variance in Prismata games, some of this content may not be advisable every time, but it still is a good guideline to follow most of the time.
The economy units[ | ]
The most basic units that compose your economy are present in the base set : the Drones which provide gold, the Engineers which provide energy, the Conduits which provide Gaussite (or Green, or G), the Blastforges which provide Behemium (or Blue, or B), and the Animuses which provide Replicase (or Red, or R). Many advanced units can complement that set, like Trinity drone or Flame Animus, but I will not develop them further in this article.
Game phases[ | ]
A typical prismata game can be broken down roughly in 6 phases, which last more or less turns depending on the advanced set units.
Phase 1 : Develop your economy[ | ]
The first thing you will do in most games is to expand your economy, mostly by buying Drones and sometimes a few Engineers. This is the first phase of the game and that can last a few turns, or more depending on the set (that will be the focus of a later article). During this phase, you will try not to waste your gold or energy resources as you can easily fall behind for the whole game if you do so.
Phase 2 : Prepare the battle[ | ]
During this phase, while you can keep expanding your economy some more, you will put your focus on getting the other resources you will need (Green, Blue or Red) which we'll call GBR. In this phase, you can also begin to buy units using these resources to prepare your offensive or set up some defenses against your opponent.
During this phase, you will also try not to waste GBR as they are pretty costly, particularly B and R that deplete at the end of the turn. At the end of this phase, your economy will be pretty much stable for the rest of the game, so make sure you have everything you will need to clash your opponent.
Phase 3 : Set up absorption[ | ]
During this phase, both players' attack numbers are pretty low, therefore easy to absorb. You may not go directly for the strongest absorber of the set if your opponent is slowly building his offense, but you should get it as soon as it can absorb a decent amount of damage. During this phase, you can still keep expanding your economy, but your focus will be on building your absorber and building up your attack to overcome your opponent's absorber. Once again, try not to waste GBR as you do so.
Phase 4 : Over, the barrier, all out attack[ | ]
At the beginning of this phase, both players have more damage than the absorber can absorb (called overcoming the absorb barrier), which means that attacking units will start making real damage.
During this phase, you should not expand your economy anymore, you should concentrate on defending your opponent's attack and developping your own. Do not defend more than necessary ! (only 1 more point of defense is enough to let you absorb). The rest of your efforts will go to increasing the pressure on your opponent by buying damaging units. Again, try to maximize your use of GBR supply.
Phase 5 : Under pressure[ | ]
As the game progress, the damage numbers of both players is going to rise. At some point, it will even be difficult to buy a single attacker more while still defending to prevent a breach. You might be forced to buy unefficient soak like Rhinos, or to sacrifice your economy by buying Forecefields or leaving Drones on defense. Most, if not all, your resources should be spent on defending the turn, and if possible buying non-prompt defense, like Engineers or Infusion Grid to ease the defense on the following turn.
During this phase, you may even need to leave some weak offensive units like Steelsplitters on defense to avoid a breach. Also, during this phase, keep an eye on the supply of your defensive units (especially Wall) so that you can anticipate their absence on the following turn. You should still try to use GBR supply as best as you can, but often you will waste some of it. Try to maximize the use of the best one to defend in the set (often blue, but not always due to units like Aegis (G) or Blood Pact (R)).
Phase 6 : Crumbling defenses[ | ]
At some point, one or both players will be unable to defend and will get breached.
If only one player is breached, then it's likely to be a loss and it's usually time to throw the towel. However, some times, the second player manages to breach back. When that happens, it's basically a race to destroy each and every one of your opponent's units. While breaching, you can pick your targets, so focus on low health attackers, like Tarsiers and Shadowfangs and economy units like Drones to stop your opponent from building any more defenses. Units with high health but also high damage, like Arka Sodara are also prime targets.
Phase 7 : Draw ?[ | ]
A draw will usually occur when both players have been breach and most of their attack forces have been destroyed while some units with blue health remain in play. Keep in mind that non offensive units can still make the game end in a draw. Special mention to Blastforge which, with its 3 blue health can obtain a draw if there is only 2 attack or less remaining. While it is not a common occurence, it is still sad to end a game with a draw, especially when this could have been avoided. In such a situation, when you are ahead in the race and you see both attack numbers dwindle, check if their are high blue health units that you can pick off while you still have enough damage to do so and without putting you behind in the race. Such a situation will occur most often with high health, low damage units like Gauss Cannons.
That requires to simulate the remaining turns and counting both damage you make and receive, so if you're unsure, better play it safe, a draw is still honourable ! After all, what feels even worse than a draw you could have avoided is a loss when you try to avoid a draw !