Refineries instead of harvesters

[phastphil]

Hi there ... new poster here.  I've been playing this game in mission modes off and on for a while, and developed a strategy that I don't see posted here ...

Early in the game, I build many refineries, instead of having multiple harvesters per refinery.  When I don't need the extra refineries, I just sell them.  A refinery only costs a little more to build than a harvester (esp. after selling), and this strategy keeps your heavy factory free to build combat tanks.

Maybe this strategy has only worked against the AI, but I wonder what y'all would think ...

-phast

[Reactor]

Well, there is a very little problem with this tactic...

Of course your Heavy factory will be "free", but Refineries cost a bit more, plus, its building is slower than a normal Harvester. And by building something with your Heavy factory, there'z a fair chance that you "steal" the money from the Refinery you just build in the same time.

Secondary, selling the Refinery won't give you back many cash, since you have the Harvester, and you cannot get back its price. In Medium skill level, you get back only $150, since the Refinery itself costs $300, and every time you sell somethin', you get the half of its price only. So any time y'do this, y'lose $150.

[XFaCt0rSS]

This isn't a new strategy - but good thinking. This strategy was used often in single player tournament games in order to continue building tanks while still getting harvesters. While it was effective, in the end, a player who spent that extra time building a couple of harvesters would most likely win assuming they had good unit control. This strategy does however allow for an effective rush though early on depending upon what your opponent has.

[nemafakei]

It's a good tactic in the right circumstances - when you have a good bit of cash but few harvesters, and are facing an attack soonish. If you're short of cash, though, getting the harvester out as quickly as possible is the priority, and directly building one may be better, especially if you're in danger of sitting

In fact, even building two harvs at a time can be pointless: if, as one harvester leaves the refinery, you have enough for EITHER a refinery or a harvester, building both (or one and a building/unit) will mean that neither are built until the harvester returns: you'll be stuck on 0 and 50-80% progress on each. If you build just one, the new harvester can be collecting cash earlier - you're that much of a harvesterload ahead.

[Bkizzle]

I thought that you had to have one harvester per refinery. However, I built two at the beginning of the final ordos mission and one of my harvester units ran into a worm early.  I never gained that harvester back. Playing ok psx. Maybe I'm thinking pc version?

[Fey]

1 hour ago, Bkizzle said:

I thought that you had to have one harvester per refinery. However, I built two at the beginning of the final ordos mission and one of my harvester units ran into a worm early.  I never gained that harvester back. Playing ok psx. Maybe I'm thinking pc version?

When you lose your last Harvester in a campaign game, it'll be replaced. At least, that's the case before you get access to Heavy Factories.

Three Harvesters per Refinery is a safe number.

[Cm_blast]

13 hours ago, Bkizzle said:

I thought that you had to have one harvester per refinery. However, I built two at the beginning of the final ordos mission and one of my harvester units ran into a worm early.  I never gained that harvester back. Playing ok psx. Maybe I'm thinking pc version?

On PC; the script of the campaign maps are set to recieve a harvester if you loose all of them and you still have any building out (don't even need to be a ref, any building will works); this is just a fail-safe to avoid players to getting stuck because no way to earn money (but selling buildings). Doesn't matter if you have 5 refineries; the fail-safe script only happens once the player loose all of the harvesters on the map and you only get 1 harvester.

I don't know if the psx game works in the same way as the PC version; probably will work the same way.

11 hours ago, Fey said:

When you lose your last Harvester in a campaign game, it'll be replaced. At least, that's the case before you get access to Heavy Factories.

I think he mean as a human player, not the AI; Human player script it's always present even for the final missions.
Only the AI controlled sides don't have that script once H.Facts are there.

Edited June 26, 2019 by Cm_blast