If you’re struggling against aggressive ladder players, there’s nothing to panic about. There’s nothing to panic about when they start expanding directly at you. In Neostesia PvP, there’s several ways to defend, despite few mechanics to avoid engagement. This game is inherently aggressive, and your best defense is often a ferocious counter-attack.
Build zones near you, so they can’t take those zones. The zones are permanently under your control for the entire rest of the match. When I noticed this player expanding towards me, I aborted my plan to expand to my left.
The below match is the perfect example on how to think with your feet, when your opponent comes at you with the intent to kill. You can start playing this game for free at Erogames.com.
Read my official review of Neostesia. Also read my shitty post about how to play the Red Starter deck.
Let’s take a look at this asshole. I lost my first match to him, because his rush was well-executed and my response was not precise enough. But for our second match, I had a clue what he played and the perfect hand to counter.
I expanded only to the right and fortified my front. Since he’s ignoring his banks, my superior economy will kick in within a few turns. All I have to do is defend whatever he throws at me with enough life left over, so he can’t finish me with burn spells.
He dealt most damage with his two 3/6 Politicians, whose special ability is that whenever they engage in combat, they deal 2 damage to the enemy player. Since the health of Politicians is 6, it takes easily 2-3 fights to kill them. You can realistically lose 6 health fighting a Politician in worst case scenario. However, I had gangsters with enough attack value to take down both Politicians with just 2 combat rounds, so he only dealt 8 damage to me.
Pay attention to how I placed my red zones. Zone positioning is key, letting you summon minions right where you need to block direct attacks. I have taunters in my deck, 2/3 Bouncers and 5/6 Killers. Enemy minions cannot move when in the proximity of a taunter. It’s impossible to block everything, and this guy played Martial Artist and Guided Missile, so he had the burn.
I played very conservatively, keeping my taunters near my base. After winning the skirmish on the right side, my income shot up to 6 a turn. I then expanded towards him and started a counter-attack. Rest is history.
Let’s look at another match. Also! Learn how to crush ranged bastards in Neostesia.
In this match, I built a red zone at the front. I played Drugs Mobster, she creates another red zone nearby.
This is as fortified as you can usually get. Just make sure you can always summon gangsters near yourself. Another option is to just expand towards them, so instead of attacking you, they get nervous and summon gangsters to defend themselves.
Since he hadn’t summoned anything yet, I wanted to prepare for the endgame while I had time. My Drugs Mobster stepped on the black path my opponent had created, then expanded towards both of his banks.
The trick is, you can only create new zones next to your zones, or near a zone where a unit stands. See in below screenshots.
My victory condition was set, a superior economy. Immediately after setting up, my Drugs Mobster stepped back one zone in anticipation of the upcoming battle. My opponent was banking a lot of money. All I could do was wait. Plan was, he plays his hand, I’ll counter what he does and victory is mine. Here’s what he played.
He spent his entire bank in one turn. Summoned a Green-Thumb Hitman, a very basic 4/6 and buffed him with two other cards. Hitman gained 5 health total, and then he played Wild Cannibal as his fourth card, which boosted the Hitman’s attack to match the life total. That’s how Hitman became a monstrous 11/11.
I was staring death in the face. Would have lost this match in two humiliating turns.
But the very first card I played, after I saw him expand towards me, was the Scaredy Champion. She has meager 1/5 stats, but gains 1 attack value every time I draw a card. She was my looter in the early game. By the time my opponent had executed his plan, Scaredy Champion was already 4/5.
Since I can draw an extra card each turn, I could’ve buffed her up further. But wasn’t necessary, as she was an enthusiastic 6/5 by the time of her first and final battle, in which she was killed scratching and clawing the colossal Green-Thumb Hitman.
The battle was as brutal as a Jason Bourne movie. Within two turns, the entire board that had filled with fighters was cleared of mutilated bodies. Their blood pooled on the curb walk, washed by the rain. This bitter victory tasted of iron.
It took three gangsters to take down the Hitman. My 2/3 Bouncer died in his first attack. He has Taunt, which forces units nearby to attack him. They can’t even move until the Taunter is gone. Then, my 4/6 Drugs Mobster and 6/5 Scaredy Champion hopped in the ring and massacred the Hitman. My superior economy kicked in, my opponent tapped out.
Let’s look at another match.
The match below was very straightforward and so was the logic. This punk’s idea was to just rush to me, summon some high-power gangsters and overpower. But when I saw his intentions, I set up a red zone and summoned a big 7/7 Drug Lord Enforcers at home, a no-brainer move. I tried to cut him off from setting a zone left of me, but he somehow snuck past and did it anyway. Regardless, his economy was inferior to mine, even though I barely had one bank more than him.
That’s all it takes. Just establish a slight advantage to your opponent in some respect and leverage that. Draw more cards than him, make more money than him, tech up faster, have more minions, something, whatever.
The issue with this guy’s plan was that my entire hand was stacked full of high-value red cards. All I needed to defend against him was play my hand. It’s not an issue that I’m only gaining 4 money per turn (base income is 3 and the bank gives 1), while all my cards cost between 5 and 6 money, because I get 1 extra money by choosing the option in the menu to the right.
The green icon is money. If he is expanding aggressively, his income is low, and by boosting my income just a little, I can pay for big cards that contest anything he throws at me. Sure, I will expand territory slower, but it’s a dance, your steps are responses to what they’re doing. I defend his opener and when my superior economy kicks in, I win again.
