Spawn, bot-rush & early expansion

Everything in OpenFront starts with where you land. A great spawn multiplies your early growth; a bad one can permanently cap you. This lesson covers the full opening sequence from spawn selection through the bot-rush phase and your first annexations.

Learning objectives:

• Terrain reading at spawn: plains/grassland (green/yellow) expands faster than mountains (white)
• Nation density: spawn near many Nations to maximise early city captures and snowball
• Player avoidance: fewer neighbours means more room to grow; identify 2-3 good per-map spots in advance
• Use spawn immunity to claim as much neutral land as possible before contact
• Ratio during bot phase: start at 30-40%, click when troop gain turns orange (declining rate)
• Use 1% boats if in a river-dense area to increase landmass potential
• Bot attack pattern: attack with roughly double their troop count to guarantee conquest and capture their gold
• Encirclement beats direct assault: surround a bot to annexe it instantly with zero troop loss
• Attack bots already fighting others as they are weakened and easier to absorb
• Use early boats for ocean connection to open new landmass and trade access
• Block off enemy players with expansion routes to limit their total land share