Turtling

Although the turtle build is already listed in the main page, I'd like to get more in depth into it, as it is such a vital part of both high level campaign and multiplayer. Feel free to contribute any knowledge or correct me, leave a suggestion in comments.

What is a turtle?
The most basic definition of the word "turtle" is to sacrifice time for a better economy and defense. The difference between a turtle and a rush/ economy rush is that a turtle produces great surpluses of energy, and is therefore ready to produce a great amount of defensive turrets as needed (since turrets usually don't cost much metal).

Don't believe the Detailed Faction Guide, which tells you that rushing is often the only option other than cap rushing. Turret rushing, while viable, needs really good mods to be effective (range range rof/iridium bomb racks, rof rof iridium/ emp artillery), and doesn't work vs yellow/purple. And turret rushing doesn't work at really high levels (levels 70 ish?).

Campaign Turtle
Build Sequence: 1. Let base cannon handle early fighter/ medium, build at least 6 reactors. This is because most turrets consume little or no metal.

2. Build 2-4 miner fighter bays. The number of bays depends on your miners, the level, and the type of battle. Keep in mind that you only need enough metal to make one or two biolabs/ void lances when the enemy caps arrive.

3. Set up the turtle: Try to prioritize phalanx/ insurance micro or blaster first, as their are integral to defense. Then put up other support turrets like laser and autocannon to kill meds and fighters, and repair turrets to take laser hits.

4. When caps come, install a void lance or biolab.

5. Continue to add turrets to your turtle as desired. Remember, the ideal turtle delays enemy caps infinitely, so you may need additional firepower as the AI spawn more ships. You need about 2 biolabs/ void lances for every 3 enemy starports.

6. Save up for a cap. If you run out of asteroids, put extractors behind your turtle or make cloaked miners, and then mine the enemy.

7. Once you have enough resources, spawn a powerful end-game cap(s) and win. In order of least to hardest to turtle:

•Cloud- Just set up a phalanx/ shield and void lance

•Purple- spam phalanx and biolab/ vl, repair turret to sustain rapier lasers

•Yellow- Same as above, some more phalanx required

•Red- A bit harder to use biolab since trident have laser. Since trident have good penetration •rof/ range phalanx is essential.

•Infest- Need laser to kill spore swarm. Biolab not recommended since they will infest your infested infest and stack. One phalanx can take all the acid bullets. Also required side microlasers/lasers to defend against spores. Add freezer, laser, void lance on from and you can turtle forever.

•Orange- Not as bad as newbs think, use insurance 50 energy turret to take goliath beam.

•Green- Hardest to turtle. Massive rapier swarm from legions+ Spartan one shotting turrets+ legions providing meat shield make this AI insane, especially on long map.

Campaign Modes

Duel- Most straightforward turtle type, no outside interference. Harder than flanks/ skirmishes because AI come straight at you and do not fight each other. High energy production mandatory. Good Caps/meds: Artilllery Halo for everything but yellow/purple/maybe infest. Beam halo for yellow/purple. Cobra stardock for cloud (does not require turtling).

Skirmish- Easy if you attack at right time. Allow enemy factions to fight each other, while you build up resources for a good cap and set up a rudimentary turtle. Since the AI are busy with each other, they will probably only make one or two caps starports to attack you as opposed to three starports in a duel. Make sure you get out your cap before one faction has been killed by another, because otherwise the winning AI will stack. Good caps: Artillery halo if both AI are not yelow/purple. Yellow/ Purple/ anything in general: SD Biohazard works for me, as does beam halo

Flank: Even easier than skirmish under right circumstances. Turtling is probably unnecessary but just in case set up a few phalanx/ one Void Lance. If possible, attack before the middle faction dies, especially if Green is on the far end. Good Caps: Artillery Halo if yellow/purple is not on end. Otherwise, beam halo.

Pincer: Nasty! You need to turtle two factions simultaneously. Worst pincer is green/orange. To make up for disadvantage of pincer, however, you start with 250 more energy. Constructor is highly recommended. Good Caps: Artillery halo/ beam halo. You can also"double" artillery halo by building an arty starport, selling it, and rebuilding it on the spot. This enables artillery to pierce phalanx.

Bosses

It is possible to turtle Yellow Boss. Look up YouTube video or this page for more info.

General Tip:
Use extractors behind your turtle or cloaked miners if you run out of asteroids Save up metal instead of releasing caps one by one if you have no asteroids, friendly caps will drive back the front line and prevent you from harvesting enemies.

Yellow and Purple can not be quickly finished off by Artillery-Halo, unless one "doubles" an arty starport.

Green and Orange can often by irritating to turtle because of beam damage. Use insurance 50 energy turrets to meat shield, and repair turrets/ hyper repair to sustain green rapier laser damage.

Duels do not require turtling until the late 60s levels if you turret rush, except vs yellow/purple.

Non- phalanx factions can easily be artillery rushed with 2 supply and rof iridium/ EMP artillery.

Infest is annoying because of spore swarm. In earlier levels (past level 30) you can exclusively use framegliched lasers to destroy all the spores and caps. Alternatively you can use just a few laser and 2 void lance, this is riskier but cheaper.

NEVER let enemies fly around your defenses, especially vs carrier factions and infest. They stack up and destroy your turtle. If your miners are mining a side asteroid, use extractor instead.

Apocalypse is useful as a high-level stalemate breaker against yellow and purple. But send out some caps (especially beam halo) in advance to destroy fighters, or use constructor to build outward. Otherwise you will blow yourself up.

The necessary technologies to create a constantly firing laser can be seen here. (No means it is not frameglitched, yes means it is and fires every frame.)

Although Beam Halo and Artillery Halo are considered the best all around cps for campaign and need no specialized mods, people have also reported satisfaction with frameglitched trident, 2 frame Hammerhead, SD Biohazard/ Jupiter, etc.

Units
Something nice about the turtle is the flexibility it offers; you don't need a specific build because turtling gives you time to make as many units as desired. But, you cannot turtle without correct turrets.

Void Lance: Make sure you have this or biolab to kill capitals (although this is a more secure way to kill off things like cloud, green, and potentially infest than biolab).

Phalanx: Very important. This will often form the backbone of your turtle, unless you are fighting an all beam setup opponent. Make sure you have at least 10% rof boost.

50 energy turret: Preferably an insurance microlaser, to clear fighters, or freeze blaster to disable caps. These will enable you to survive Spartan/Goliath as each destroyed insurance turret gives 50% refund of the original cost of the turret, and 75% on selling it.

Repair Turret/Hyper Repair: Good for sustaining non-Spartan laser damage.

Laser/Autocannon/Quad Micromissile/etc.: Use to destroy any fighters or mediums in the way. Not necessary if you use base cannons. Highly recommended vs infest.

Biolab: This gives you an easy way to take down capitals, and gain more meat shields. The best way to use this is with a freeze blaster and a couple of lasers to take out any fighters. This way you can freeze the cap and infect it, gaining a free ally. The best thing about the biolab is the fact that it is cheap (at least, cheaper than a Void Lance), so it can be made fairly early on.

PVP Turtle
One of the biggest differences between Campaign and PVP is real players can have a constructor. So while high level AI can still be turtled since they have a build maximum, hardcore players spam units and it really comes down to player with best economy. But turtling is still useful for countering rushing, especially on short map.

If the opponent uses cloak carrier caps, Beam Halo, or high-rof bullet-spam ships like Trident, turtling is likely a waste of time. In this case you must out- rush or out- build them.

If they use meds/ fighters, or unlisted caps: Base shield, phalanx, hyper repair, frameglitch laser/microlaser, repair turret can turtle.

Oftentimes you will instead half-turtle, and spawn a few important turrets like laser/ VL/ Hyper Repair rather than a full-on turtle. Your caps/ damage dealing ships will take the place of meat shield and damage turrets.

Turtle Breaking

Other than straight up overwhelming turtles with brute power and spammage, there are a few specific counters for turtles in multiplayer.

Beam Weapons: Beam weapons cannot be intercepted by phalanx, so the damage must be tanked/ repaired. This is particularly the case with frameglitched Lasers and Beam-Halo. Range range rof Beam-Halo and some primer is perfect for destroying turtles from a distance. A large number of cloaked cutlasses, such as those spawned by carriers, may also be troublesome. Goliath/ Spartans are easier to turtle so long as one has at least 4 reactor and insurance 50 energy turret.

High ROF/ Frameglitched projectiles. Usually takes form of Trident. Not impossible to turtle, but requires many, many phalanx (8 vs fgltch trident), usually ruining the turtler's economy. Range range VL may help in this case. Be wary of enemy Void Lances, as they will decimate a defense without a shield. A way to counter black holes is to bring a tactical shield, as they help with defense anyway.

High range/ penetration projectiles. Takes the form of fast moving projectiles, such as a range range Trident, or even a range range Piranha blaster. These high speed projectiles can punch right through AoE shielding such as base shield or tactical shield, teleporting through the shield without taking it down. Ideal for high range freeze units to break base shield turtles.

AoE weapons: AoE affects all units withing range and cannot be blocked (except by shield sometimes). Nuclear missiles will destroy any enemy defenses assuming they hit the target.

Cobra and Tyrant is a great combo. Even if the opponent has shielded phalanx, the cobra eliminates the turrets' shielding. Then Tyrant flies in and disables defense.

the1cam's specialized turtle guide
As a specialist turtle user, I can honestly say that the turtle tactic has gotten me past level 90. This is a tactic that doesn't require the best miner, or the best equipment ever. In fact, almost any player can utilize this basic tactic to defend. My miner only had 1 rof until after level 60, so it is possible.

My loudout can be seen here. Yours does not need nearly as many reds, they are just what I have spent hours hunting down. The medium ships I almost never use, and the fighters are only used to back up some of my other ships, as they both have self-destruct. The Artillery Halo is my go-to ship, but in reality this strategy means the capital can be almost anything. I just use the arty halo to save time. The second capital is what I use for yellow/purple, or for longer flanks. Usually I will use a carrier or a missile-dense capital such as cataclysm or hammerhead. This means I can overwhelm phalanxes, and my artillery halo can punch a hole through the base.

Of the important (or rather, necessary) turtle turrets, the most important mods for turrets are, for me: I also take a Void Lance in the case that I'm up against cloud, green, or occasionally infest, where the spores from the biolab are far less effective. The nuke I bring because it's a much quicker way to finish off yellow and purple, but they are not difficult to face if you have a few phalanxes. Normal lasers, especially with range, are great to use at the sides of a turtle to pick off fighters and spores.
 * Insurance on a microlaser. It doesn't matter much what other mods are on your microlaser, as long as you have insurance. As I use microlasers as both a fighter-clearer and a front row tank, it is important to be able to replace them easily. They are already cheap at 50 energy, but insurance just means one less reactor to get a stable economy. For the other two mods I would recommend rof to help clear out mediums and fighters, and a shield or regen to help keep the microlasers alive for longer.
 * Freeze on a blaster. While people generally overlook the blaster, it is quite good for stalling capitals and other offense. After all, for 50 energy, putting one down is quite easy, and it pays back by freezing the capitals long enough to kill them. When used with a biolab, this blaster is godly. The second most important mod would have to be range, as this means the blaster can start freezing caps before a lot of caps get in range to do any real damage. As a third mod, I use shield because it helps the blaster survive things like spores. However, anything could work, such as insurance or a second range mod.
 * Range/rof on a phalanx. This allows them to have enough range to be second- to third-row turrets and still be effective in protecting the front row. My phalanxes also have insurance, which helps my turtle be a bit more movable, and also means stray Goliath shots aren't as damaging to my economy.
 * Range on a repair. This again allows them to be moved further back and still do their job effectively. Rof is also another important mod for these turrets, otherwise a few more would need to be spammed. My current repairs are range/range/rof, which allows them to be right beside the base and still heal front row turrets.

In terms of defensive strategy, I create a "focal point" of my defense where all of the enemy ships will try to attack first. This can take a while to learn how to do, but it involves putting one turret (preferably an insurance microlaser) at the closest point to an enemy as you can. This point can usually be seen by the position of your base in relation to your enemy. However, since the base shield doesn't cover the front corners of your build area properly, I tend to not use those positions but the next closest one. As the name suggests, the focal point should draw the majority of the AI's ships. From there you can build up a defense centered on the focal point, such as phalanxes all around, a freeze blaster slightly off to the side (and preferably another to the other side), and a repair turret or two to keep this focal point stable. This focal point will be where most of the action will happen, so keep an eye on it to make sure it isn't destroyed. If it is and you don't replace it quickly it can often lead to you losing the game, depending on your setup. A focal point can look like this, that, them and the next thing.

Step-by-step breakdown of a usual campaign mission:

Step 1: I build 4 reactors, as far back as I can from the enemy.

Step 2: I build 1 miner, to start my metal income early.

Step 3: A microlaser is placed in front of my base. I try to keep it as close to the front of the build range as possible, to maximize the space I have as well as the protection of the base shield. This microlaser, combined with the base cannons, is often enough to stop any damage trickling through. However, just to make sure (especially with infest), I usually place a freeze blaster on the slot right next to it. These two turrets can hold out on their own until caps, usually.

Step 4: Add another reactor, and another miner.

Step 5: Often by this point (on higher levels, at least) the AI will have caps by now, so you will want to build appropriate defense. If you haven't already, place a freeze blaster (or other substitute) off to the side of the focal point of your defense. For yellow and purple, I place 2 phalanxes and a repair. Orange has Goliaths, so I place more microlasers, along with 1 phalanx to deal with scorpions (like this for a start, going to this). For most other factions I place down a single phalanx right behind the first microlaser. The factions which use lasers on their caps (green, red, orange) will require a repair turret to heal the front line. Thanks, laser buff.

Step 6: Once the basic defense is set up, add a biolab. You should naturally have enough metal for one of these depending on your miners once you have enough energy at this point, after the basic defenses are placed. This biolab will help fend off the first few caps. I would recommend using a Void Lance for green* or cloud**, as spores don't survive lasers well and cloud's shields make them ineffective. It is up to you if you want to laugh at an infection war with infest or go for the safer Void Lance to keep their population down. The only downside to using the Void Lance is it is slightly more expensive than a biolab, meaning you need to defend for longer without a cap-killer.

Step 7: Add 1-3 more reactors (I usually add 2, it depends on the situation) and another miner or two. Make sure you keep an eye on your defense while you do this, as if the basic setup isn't working you will need to build more defense to keep it up.

Step 8: Create a constant flow of infest spores. This can be done by building a total of three biolabs. The best way to make it constant is to wait until one biolab finishes spawning spores, then immediately place the next biolab. Once that one finishes spawning spores, place the third biolab (when you have the resources). This should create a constant chain, which along with a strengthened defensive line will hold off a fully built base of most factions.

Step 9: This step should really be happening as needed throughout stages 7 and 8, but if you haven't done it by then it's time to fully complete the defensive line. I like to do that by making my setup look like this, but you may have a slightly different setup depending on the range of your turrets. Microlasers are arrayed at the edge of build space to take out any stray fighters that zoom past the initial focal point.

Step 10: Keep an eye on your defense (especially your focal point) and save for a cap. Or, if you want to use a nuke, do something like this. Since the enemy can't go any further than your defense line, you will win.

* Against green, I would recommend using the Void Lance over the biolab, and set up your base similar to what I've done here. This setup should defend against green indefinitely, but the initial steps are the same as above. The main differences are in Step 6, where instead of adding a biolab you would add a Void Lance slightly off to one side. I usually place mine with the back half of the Void Lance in line with the front half of my base (as shown in the bottom half of the base in the link above). This allows the Void Lance to take down any caps that get close to your front line. The microlasers will need to be placed slightly differently as well. I usually have 3 microlasers and a freeze blaster in the very front line nearest the focal point, then a space then a microlaser around the edge. These extra microlasers should kill off any fighters that are shot out by the Legions green has. I then often fill the edge gaps with more freeze blasters, just to help make sure the caps nearer the base are frozen. A little later on in the game I like to replace these microlasers with actual lasers, because they take down the fighters a lot easier due to range.

** If you end up against cloud, I wouldn't recommend turtling. Just put down 1-3 reactors and use the rest of your energy on miners, and place down a couple of cobras. You will win. Credit to the hours of blood, sweat & tears FateIsEscaped, rapidity and many others put into coming up with this strategy for cloud, it revolutionized the game when it was discovered. Imagine! Finding an easy way to deal with a heavily shielded freeze faction, what a concept it was! I mean, look at it! Amazing!

Side note: For most factions, I start by keeping my turrets at the very edge of their turret range. However, eventually I end up putting my turrets in range once I have enough phalanxes/repair. The only factions I don't move into range with are green (they have far too many lasers to be safe) and cloud (the freeze is annoying, not to mention they die quickly anyway).

Gallery
•http://imgur.com/GuwxccY

•Link above to a picture of orange turtle (credit to the1cam, level 38)

http://imgur.com/HTeTdSm

Link above to yellow duel turtle (level 30)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AABFHetWdOI

Link above to red duel turtle, level 100.

Laser Turtle

http://imgur.com/1UAtLha

Other Orange Turtle

http://imgur.com/xp8MFlJ

http://imgur.com/a/rdHEn (level  88 orange turtle)

Spectre Turtle http://imgur.com/lQbTida

Green turtles:

http://i.imgur.com/nyWSkYE.png?1

http://i.imgur.com/3Cbzg8W.png?1

http://imgur.com/a/rdt0K