Seven Named OpenFront Strategies
The recurring OpenFront strategies, named and backed by source values: Three Cities First, Spread Wide, Cork the Neck, Bot Hunting, Density Hunting.
The short version
- Seven standards — Three Cities First · Spread Wide · Cork the Neck · Tribe Hunting · Density Hunting · Encircle and Absorb · Wait for Expiry
- Six numbers — the 6600 rule · the 1.67 wall · the density share · the 5175 exchange · the 30-second window · the 200–400 band
- We coined these names. They are not established terms, but every number behind them comes from the source
There are seven: Three Cities First, Spread Wide, Cork the Neck, Bot Hunting, Density Hunting, Encircle and Absorb, and Wait for Expiry. Each is paired with the source-code number that makes it work.
OpenFront has these recurring standard plays and no vocabulary for them. StarCraft has “6-pool” and “rax double”; naming a thing is what makes it discussable and practisable.
The seven below are names we invented. Do not expect them to land anywhere else. But every justification is a value pulled from the game’s source, so the names may change while the content does not.
1. Three Cities First
Fill three cities before anything else.
875,000 gold cumulative. Troop cap purchased per gold: 2.00 on the first city, 1.00 on the second, 0.50 on the third. From the fourth onward the price is flat at 1,000,000 gold, so it drops to 0.25 and stays there.
The first three are dramatically cheaper than everything after. Ports and defense posts come later.
When it fails — when you are border on all sides with no interior. Cities transfer with territory, so building on land you cannot hold is gifting cap to whoever takes it.
→ How Many Cities Should You Build?
2. Spread Wide
Drop the attack ratio to 10–30% and push in several directions at once.
Wilderness advance spends clamp(2000 × terrain speed ÷ troops sent, 5, 100) per tile, and the floor is 5. Past 6,600 troops on plains, no amount of extra troops gains you a single tile (highland 8,000, mountain 10,000).
Advance speed also scales with border length. Three fronts at 6,600 each beat one front at 25,000 by a wide margin.
Key number — the 6600 rule. Expanding across plains, anything past 6,600 troops is waste.
When it fails — when neighbours already press on you and there is no wilderness left. Then you switch to the player-combat math.
→ What Attack Ratio Should You Use?
3. Cork the Neck
One defense post in a narrow corridor, then move every troop on that side elsewhere.
A defense post multiplies attacker losses by ×5 and slows advance ×3 within 30 tiles. The first one costs 50,000 gold.
The point is that they do not stack. The game finds one defender-owned post and applies the multiplier immediately. So there is no reason to pack them — the whole skill is finding terrain a single post seals.
An isthmus, a mountain pass, a river crossing, the waist of a continent.
When it fails — open plains. Thirty tiles covers only a slice of that border. There, troops and cities serve you better.
→ Defense Post Range and Placement
4. Tribe Hunting
When choosing where to expand, prefer the side with Tribes on it.
A player or Nation attacking a Tribe gets ×0.7 on losses. Thirty percent more land for the same troops.
Just read the Tribe label in the player info overlay. Early on, when you cannot decide which way to push, this alone usually gives the right answer.
When it fails — when the Tribe side is mountain and the player side is plains. The terrain gap (80 vs 120) can cancel the 30%. Check with Space.
5. Density Hunting
Pick the opponent whose troops are spread thin. The bigger they are, the better.
The least-known of the seven. Attacker losses are the sum of two terms:
loss = (troop-ratio term) + (defender density term)The ratio clamp multiplies both terms, so more troops shrink both. Which is exactly why their balance ignores your troop count — the density term’s share is set by the defender’s troops ÷ tiles alone.
So piling on troops hits a wall at 1.67× and cannot go below it. But picking a low-density target shrinks that term with it. Against someone stacked 100 troops/tile it is 46% of your loss; against someone spread at 1 troop/tile it is under 1%.
A player with lots of land and no army. A large empire whose long border thinned it out. Scan the leaderboard for a high Owned % next to low troops.
Key numbers — the 1.67 wall and the density share.
→ What Attack Ratio Should You Use?
6. Encircle and Absorb
Surround them completely and take everything at zero cost.
Make it so that no tile of their territory touches water or the map edge, and they are absorbed instantly for zero troop losses — plus all the gold they had banked.
Finding an isolated Tribe early and wrapping it is the strongest single move in the game. Right after spawn, scan your surroundings and mark the encirclable targets first.
When it fails — when they hold coastline. Touching water breaks the encirclement.
7. Wait for Expiry
Do not betray. Wait for the alliance to lapse on its own.
Alliances lapse automatically after 5 minutes, and a lapse is not a betrayal. Break one yourself and you carry the traitor mark for 30 seconds, during which everyone hits you at half losses.
If you can wait 30 seconds, wait. If you can wait 5 minutes, definitely wait.
Watch the expiry timer and strike just after it runs out — zero penalty.
Two exceptions — if they are already a traitor, or disconnected, breaking costs you no mark.
When it fails — when the encirclement is available now or never. Zero losses plus all their gold outweighs a 30-second window.
→ What Happens When You Betray an Alliance?
The six numbers
Forget the names if you like. These are what actually make decisions.
| Name | Value | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| 6600 rule | 6,600 troops | where wilderness advance speed maxes out on plains (highland 8,000, mountain 10,000) |
| 1.67 wall | 1.67× defender troops | past this, the loss coefficient stops improving |
| density share | 1–46% of losses | set by the defender’s density, not your troop count — change target to change it |
| 5175 exchange | 5,175 tiles | what one city is worth in land when you hold 1,000 tiles |
| 30-second window | 30 seconds | how long a traitor mark lasts — hit them at half losses |
| 200–400 band | 200–400 tiles apart | where trade income is concentrated |
About the names
We made all of them up. They are not established terms and we are not claiming otherwise.
The justifications, though, are values pulled from Config.ts and AttackExecution.ts in the game repository. The commit hash in the footer is the reference. If the game patches, the numbers can change — and this page changes with them.
If better names exist, those should win. What matters is not the naming but counting how many standard plays actually have evidence behind them.
Further reading
- What Attack Ratio Should You Use? — the 6600 rule, the 1.67 wall, the density share
- How Many Cities Should You Build? — the 5175 exchange
- What Happens When You Betray an Alliance? — the 30-second window
- Opening Simulator — play these openings out against the real curve