Sitting Ducks Walkthrough

You begin in the north-west corner of a water world with a Commander, two Underwater Metal Extractors and 1000 metal and energy. Arm holds the south-east quarter of the map behind a long wall of Floating Dragon's Teeth and floating towers, and 17 Sea Serpents, the planet's native beasts, swim on Arm's side. On Medium Arm has 148 units. You win only when every Arm unit and every Serpent is destroyed.

Arm's factories have orders that run for more than two hours, and the Seaplane Platform alone has orders for 56 Albatross torpedo seaplanes. Waiting behind your towers does not end the mission. Build a navy at home, beat the early patrols as they pass, then sail round the open east end of the wall and destroy the three factories before you clear the rest.

The Battlefield

Hydross is open sea from edge to edge. Arm's wall of 28 Floating Dragon's Teeth runs from (2320, 6240) in the south-west to (6320, 4368) in the east, with Stingrays, Defender - NS missile towers and Torpedo Launchers set along it. Behind the wall lie the Underwater Fusion Plant, two Millenium battleships and, in the south-east, all three factories. East of the wall's last tower there is open water all the way to the map edge.

Blue numbers mark the plan and red letters mark Arm. The map shows the Medium set-up.

Map of Sitting Ducks 1234567ABCDEFGH
The planEnemy positionsYour unitsEnemy unitsHover a dot to see the unit and its orders. · Map 7,680 × 7,680 pixels · Scroll or pinch on the map to zoom; drag to move. Hover over a feature or a resource for its details.
  • 1Your start. The two Underwater Metal Extractors already stand on deposits worth 223. Three Sea Serpents beside you swim off to the south-east at once.
  • 2Two deposits worth 223, here and at (1752, 808).
  • 3The guard post. Thunderbolts here cover the deposit at (1512, 1768), the Sea Serpent patrol to the south and the seaplane route to the west.
  • 4Your fleet gathers here, between deposits at (2040, 1608) and (2792, 1368).
  • 5Turn south here and follow the open east side of the map.
  • 6From here your Executioners shell the end of the wall at F.
  • 7From here they reach all three factories at A.
  • AArm's Shipyard. The Adv. Shipyard is just east at (6496, 6000), and the Seaplane Platform is to the west at (5648, 6208), guarded by four Defender - NS towers.
  • BTwo Millenium battleships and a Ranger. They wait until they are attacked. The Underwater Fusion Plant sits between them.
  • CEight Sea Serpents. At 8:20 they start a patrol to the west edge at D.
  • DThe west end of the Sea Serpent patrol.
  • ESix Sea Serpents that wait until they are attacked. Then they patrol to (6720, 3861), right beside 6.
  • FThe end of the wall: a Torpedo Launcher, a Stingray and a Defender - NS.
  • GA Seahawk sonar plane at 8:20, then Albatross seaplanes at 11:40 and 15:00, fly here first.
  • HThey then patrol between G and here, straight over your base.

Arm's Timetable

These are the Medium orders that matter, counted from the start of the mission.

Time What happens
From the start Three Sea Serpents beside your start head for (4279, 4175), then patrol between there and (5239, 1023).
8:20 The eight Sea Serpents at C patrol to D. The Seahawk flies to G and patrols to H. A Ranger at (1424, 4048) patrols to (4300, 2188). The Seaplane Platform orders its first Albatross, and more every five minutes after.
10:00 The Shipyard starts its orders for Skeeters, Crusaders and Lurkers, and the Adv. Shipyard its orders for Conquerors, Rangers and Milleniums.
11:40 One Albatross flies the Seahawk's route, G then H.
13:20 Six Skeeters at (4320, 5200) attack your Shipyards, Seaplane Platforms, Construction Ships, Tidal Generators, Hives, Enforcers and Searchers. Three of them start with the Shipyards, the other three with the Seaplane Platforms.
15:00 Two more Albatross fly the G to H route. A Colossus at (3472, 7248) patrols to (6804, 5525).
18:20 Four Piranha submarines at (1600, 5850) patrol to the east edge near (6908, 2700).
20:00 Four Crusaders in the east at (7100, 3700) patrol across the south to about (600, 6250). Two Crusaders in the south-west patrol across the middle of the map to (6682, 1503).
30:00 The second Colossus patrols from (7184, 6304) to (3087, 6703). Four Skeeters at (7150, 4600) patrol to (1556, 7079).
31:40 Six Albatross fly north to (3492, 607), then patrol to (532, 2983), south of your base.

The Plan on Medium

Build at Home (0:00 to 8:20)

  1. Let the three Sea Serpents go. With the Commander, build Tidal Generators beside 1. Wind and solar plants are not allowed on this mission, so the tide is your first energy.
  2. Build a Shipyard at 1, then two Construction Ships. Send them to the deposits at 2 and 3 with Underwater Metal Extractors.
  3. Before 8:20, put two or three Thunderbolts at 3. A Thunderbolt's laser does 195 damage at a range of 410, so it kills a Sea Serpent in three shots before the Serpent's flame thrower (range 160) can reach it.
  4. Add Stingers at 1 and 3. Their missiles reach 700 and do 45 damage, and an Albatross has only 216 hit points.

Hold the Raids (8:20 to 20:00)

  1. At 8:20 the eight Sea Serpents from C start their patrol to D. Their route passes just south of 3, and the Thunderbolts catch them there. Add Enforcers from the Shipyard: 3150 hit points and a cannon with a range of 660.
  2. Use a Construction Ship to build an Adv. Shipyard. Its first jobs are an Advanced Construction Sub and a Hive, whose radar reaches 1780.
  3. At 13:20 six Skeeters come for your Shipyards and Construction Ships. A Skeeter has 560 hit points and missiles of 31 damage, so the Enforcers and Thunderbolts beat them easily. Keep the Construction Ships behind the guns.
  4. With the Advanced Construction Sub, build an Underwater Fusion Plant and a Seaplane Platform.

Build the Fleet (20:00 to 35:00)

  1. Build six or more Executioners, three or four Missile Frigates and two Shredders. The Executioner's cannon and the Missile Frigate's rocket both reach 1300, further than every tower on the wall and further than a Millenium's 1250.
  2. Gather the fleet at 4. At 31:40 six Albatross cross the north on their way to (3492, 607). The Shredders' flak (146 damage, range 750) and the Stingers at home deal with them.

Turn the Wall (35:00 onward)

  1. Sail from 4 to 5 and down to 6. Leave the six Sea Serpents at E alone on the way.
  2. At 6, destroy the three towers at F from 1300. The Torpedo Launcher reaches 400, the Stingray 480 and the Defender - NS 700.
  3. Move to 7 and destroy the Adv. Shipyard and the Shipyard, then the four Defender - NS towers at (5424, 6064) to (5424, 6256) and the Seaplane Platform. With all three gone, Arm gets no more ships or seaplanes.
  4. Turn west along the inside of the wall and take the towers one at a time from 1300. Destroy the battleships at B with Executioners from beyond 1250, or with Titans once the Defender - NS towers near them are dead. A Titan's torpedo does 780 damage.
  5. Hunt down the rest: Underwater Metal Extractors across the south-east, the Tidal Generators at (4480, 6704) to (4672, 6704), Floating Metal Makers, the Sonar Stations, the patrols, and every Sea Serpent.

What Changes on Hard

  • Your forces and your starting 1000 metal and 1000 energy do not change.
  • Arm has 177 units instead of 148: 30 Defender - NS towers, 14 Stingrays, 19 Sea Serpents and 3 Milleniums. Ten Advanced Torpedo Launchers and one Torpedo Launcher replace Medium's seven Torpedo Launchers and two advanced ones.
  • Two more Sea Serpents start at (768, 1536) and (640, 1648), just south of you, and patrol east to about (6933, 1200) from the first second. Build a Thunderbolt before anything else.
  • A second Seaplane Platform at (5424, 6208) orders 3 Albatross at once and 3 more every 1:40, 87 in all. The first platform orders 4 every five minutes from 5:00. Your Stingers must be up within minutes.
  • The Shipyard and the Adv. Shipyard start at once but finish their short orders by 20:00.
  • The east is better defended. Defender - NS towers stand at (6816, 4272), (6752, 4560), (6672, 5136), (7152, 5312), (6816, 5824) and (7152, 5856). Executioners still out-range them.
  • A third Millenium waits 40 minutes at (5648, 5024), just beyond 1250 from 7. All the battleships have standing orders to manoeuvre and fire at will.
  • An Escort radar jammer ship patrols from (3584, 6176) to (6456, 4975) from 11:40.
  • The computer player keeps all the income its buildings make, against 70 percent on Medium.

Which Units Beat Theirs

Arm unit Its threat Your answer
Sea Serpent Fast (speed 5.8), 420 hit points, flame thrower of 17 flames every 1.2 seconds, range 160 Thunderbolt (195 damage, range 410) or Enforcer (range 660)
Albatross Two torpedoes of 400 damage at range 300 Stinger (range 700) at home, Shredder with the fleet
Stingray Laser, 200 damage at range 480, 1325 hit points Executioner from 1300
Defender - NS Missiles at range 700, 252 hit points Executioner; outside its 700 it cannot answer
Advanced Torpedo Launcher 1000 damage at range 650 Missile Frigate: two rockets of 500 kill one
Millenium Two cannons of 260 damage at range 1250, 5720 hit points Executioner at 1300, or eight Titan torpedoes
Crusader Cannon at range 660, 2870 hit points Executioner, or a Warlord (6140 hit points, cannon at 1250)
Piranha Submarine, torpedo of 200 at range 375 Enforcer depth charges, range 400

Metal and Energy

The surface metal value is 3, so all your metal comes from deposits. There are 59 of them, and all but two are worth 223. Your two extractors start on the pair at (1096, 1256) and (1480, 1224). More lie close by at (1752, 808), (2200, 488), (3096, 552), (424, 1784), (1016, 1848), (1512, 1768), (2040, 1608) and (2792, 1368). An Underwater Metal Extractor uses 2 energy.

Energy is the harder part. You cannot build wind or solar plants here, so you rely on Tidal Generators, with a tidal strength of 24. A Hive makes 380 energy and uses 45. The Underwater Fusion Plant makes 1200 and is the real answer, at 7210 metal and 57,349 energy. Underwater Metal Storage holds 1500 metal, so build one before you start the fleet.

Traps

  • Both Colossus carriers explode in an atomic blast of up to 2000 damage within 258 pixels when they die. One patrols between (3472, 7248) and (6804, 5525) from 15:00, the other between (7184, 6304) and (3087, 6703) from 30:00. Shoot them from range.
  • The Underwater Fusion Plant at B dies in the same atomic blast. Keep your ships back when it goes.
  • The battleships and the Ranger at B, and the Sea Serpents at E, stay quiet until they are hit. Wake them only when your fleet is ready.
  • The 13:20 Skeeters pick their targets by type, Shipyards and Seaplane Platforms first, then Construction Ships and Tidal Generators. Keep your guns between them and those buildings.
  • Your Commander is your only builder at the start, and losing him loses the mission. Keep him at home.

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