Overview
Looking to get the 64-Bit Armies achievement? Not sure how to take on those pesky bots? If so, then this is the guide for you; also includes a demonstrative accompanying video.
Introduction and Overview
The purpose of this guide is to describe an effective strategy and provide a walkthrough for obtaining the 64-Bit Armies Steam achievement in the video game 8-Bit Armies. It includes a video that I –the author of this guide– recorded and edited myself demonstrating how I got earned this achiement.
The official description states, and I quote: “Win a skirmish or multiplayer game vs. 6 hard AIs.” You do not have to do it with a specific faction, nor do all of the AIs have to be on the same team, though given that map sizes only support up to 8 players, including yourself, you can only allot yourself up to 1 teammate at the most. The achievement also doesn’t specify that you can’t attempt it with a friend, i.e. another human player, so feel free to do that if you really suck wish to, but it shouldn’t be necessary. Good luck finding another player though, am I right?
If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment or whatever and I’ll respond as soon as I actually notice it am able to.
Match Setup Details
For starters, you’re going to have to pick a map that supports 8 players, obviously –though if you can find a community-made map that supports 7 players that you really like for some peculiar reason, go ahead. The best map that I would recommend is Octagon, it’s one of the official maps. I would crank up the resources per node to its max (i.e. 20,000). Feel free to do whatever you want for Crate Drop Chance, that simply dictates the probability of crates spawning whenever a random building/structure/object is destroyed, such as a house, car, apartment building, etc. The crates can potentially contain neat bonuses like random units (some which may not even be from your faction!), heal your existing units in close proximity, grant an immediate money bonus, etc., though they can also contain harmful effects, such as setting several of your units on fire (that are within close proximity to the crate), setting off a massive explosion, etc., so just think about it a bit before you start. (See the video further on in this guide for some examples of crates.)
You can select any faction you want, though I’m not sure if you can get this achievement with any of the factions from 8-Bit Hordes, so bear that in mind. Personally, I would recommend just using the Renegades faction, they’re a well-rounded and easy to use faction, whereas the Guardians a tad bit trickier for unfamiliar/inexperienced players.
Now this is a more critical aspect of the setup. Make sure to refer to the image that I provided below for further details on setting up the bots, etc.
What you want to do is basically leave your starting point at the default position, i.e. in the lower-left corner, as it’s much easier to defend than one of the central positions (i.e. positions 2, 4, 6, or 8). Set up the first bot to be right next to you (in position 2), place this bot on your team, and set him to INSANE. Additionally, you can change his color to one similar to yours for easier recognition and distinction from enemies, if you prefer.
As for the rest of the bots, just add them all (that’s 6 enemy AIs in total!) and set them to HARD, but don’t put them on the same team. As I briefly mentioned earlier, they don’t have to actually be on the same team for you to get the achievement. Since they won’t be on the same team, they’ll also fight amongst themselves, which takes a lot of the stress off of you so that you can build up a large army and attack them while they’re weakened.
Strategy During the Match
Refer to the video below for how I specifically got this achievement. Note that my strategy would never work in an actual multiplayer match against human players, unless they were newbies. Anyways, build a reasonably sized force while staying on the defensive, make sure to get a few Refineries and Harvestors up to get a steady income going. Once you have a sizable force, split them into a defensive force and an attack force and attack the closest enemy AI. Also make sure to pay attention to your friendly bot, while he should be able to manage things just fine by himself, he can still get overwhelmed by enemies, so be ready to defend his base as necessary. I had to break an assault on his base at one point, as seen in the video below.
I would recommend trying to focus on a mixture of tanks (until you unlock the mega tanks, then just spam those instead), engineers, and rocket helicopters, though make sure that you’ve built a few additional harvestors to make the most of your various Oil Fields.
During the early game, start by buliding a Refinery right next to the Oil Field close to your base, then a barracks, then probably a second refinery near the Oil Field to the right of your base so you’ll be getting a more steady supply of income. After that, build an Energy Generator, then a Tech Lab & Vehicle Bay. During this time, make sure that you’re pumping out a reasonable number of infantry to defend in case of attack. Also, if you’ve got the Crate Drop Chance turned on (i.e. at anything higher than zero), then from the very start of the match, you should send out your 3 infantry units (the 3 that you start with) to go attack random buildings/objects right outside your base. Remember to hold SHIFT while giving them orders to queue up multiple actions so that they’ll continue to attack random structures while you focus on other matters. Make sure to collect crates as necessary.
Basically, they’ll be too distracted fighting each other, though you should still be careful as one or two of them may still attack you or your teammate, though as long as you’re a little bit careful, your friendly bot should be okay as long as you set him to INSANE as I described earlier. Just continually build units and expand your base to get close to other Oil Refineries as applicable and attack the enemies as necessary.
If you build nukes, don’t use them on the enemie’s units as the AI is hardwired to immediately disperse or “scatter” their units, instead try to target their turrets, etc. unless you have an enemy’s units stuck in a corner or something so they can’t scatter too much. Note that you can also order units to scatter by pressing L which will cause them to scatter in random directions, though this only works on selected units. This is much easier if you have your units assigned to Groups so you can just press a button to instantly select a group of them and scatter them immediately. Not only is this effective for minimizing casualties from nukes, it’s also great for helping infantry dodge harvestors or tanks which will crush them, killing them immediately.
Anyways, just continually build units and slowly attack the enemy bots as necessary and you’ll eventually win, thus earning you the 64-Bit Armies achievement. Good job, I’m proud of you.