The Battle of Polytopia – Domination: How to Move Up from Two Stars to Three Stars

If you frequently hit 70ish% in Domination mode, but reaching 95% seems impossible, these straightforward tactics will get you over the hump. Take 5 minutes to read this guide.

Pre-Game: Pick the Right Settings

All credit goes to Frankie1969 !

• However many turns you usually take to win, divide by 10 and round up. Pick exactly that many enemies. This will guarantee 100% Speed.
• Keeping the number low minimizes the risk of one enemy tribe killing another, which would prevent 100% Tribes Destroyed.
• And obviously, you must pick Crazy for 100% Difficulty.

Early Game: Make Metropolis Fast

• If anything goes wrong, exit the game and start a new one. Not enough resources in your starting block? Exit. An aggressive neighbor kills your explorer? Exit. Your explorer spent 3 turns walking down a dead end peninsula with nothing good on it, and will need another 3 to get back? Exit. One enemy tribe wipes out another? Definitely exit, because you have already lost the 3rd star.
• Don’t build more units in the first 10 turns. Put all your effort into tech and buildings. An enemy capital is too close and they’re invading? Exit.
• One possible exception: if you run into a weak enemy on turn 1 and you’re certain 3 or 4 units can take their capital very quickly, maybe go for it, but if it drags into a long siege, what do you do? Exit of course.
• Do NOT take every village site you find. Tech gets more expensive based on your number of cities. A few well-spaced size 5+ cities are way better for you than a bunch of size 4 cities without enough space to grow.

Mid Game: It’s All about the Giants (and Bombers)

• Another reason to focus on fewer, bigger cities instead of many small cities: you need to pump out special units, by growing.
• By the time you have 3 or 4 giants stomping enemy cities, ignore any unbuilt sites and keep moving.
• Exception: if it’s far away from all enemies and has enough resources to reach size 6 quickly, okay.
• As of December 2023, bombers are the f***ing bomb. Build bombers when you can afford it, plus enough small ships to defend them. BTW, use Defenders for ships, they’re cheap and high HP.
• BTW, points don’t matter to any percentage, so don’t waste time on Temples (unless 1 or 2 are the only possible way to reach the next city size).

End Game: Weenie Horde = Battle Skill

• When you’re one turn away from victory, and you know you have 100% Speed & 100% Tribes Destroyed, build units in every city. Battle skill percentage is based on how many units you lost compared to how many you have. If you have lots and lots of troops on the board, that makes your Battle Skill percentage go up.
• If the other 3 stats are 100%, you only need 80ish% Battle Skill to finally grab that third star.
• Congratulations!