Colony

This page shows the mechanics of colonies.

Mechanics

You can play with 9 different colonies in the entire game. If you choose to play with wood ants, leafcutter ants, fire ants or Matabele ants, you must pick either of the 2 variants.

You can only control a single colony in any levels or custom games. Non-player colonies can use the same mechanics as you can but are controlled by the game. Every colony must be assigned to a number, a color and an underground area.

Non-player colonies and other enemies are always hostile to eachother.

The respective colony is defeated when its queen is dead. Tiles are deleted every 0.5 second and return 66% of the cost. Refunds are modified to reward the victors: larvae, leaves, termites or lignocellulose.

Levels

Behaviors

Non-player colonies in story levels and extra levels are designed to mimic their real-life counterparts. Nanitic workers are always kept inside to do nest jobs.

Non-player colonies check the surface for food and move gathering groups there.

• Old system: Non-player colonies can only check predetermined locations. Gathering groups move to the most recently chosen locations if they can't find any food.

• New system: Non-player colonies can constantly and thoroughly scan their territories for food or danger and move gathering groups accordingly. Gathering groups remain inside if they can't find any food.

Non-player colonies attack any enemies on the way when they are gathering food. They can disable attacking and retreat inside after they have taken enough casualties.

Non-player colonies can control up to 2 gathering groups and 2 attacking groups.

• Polymorphic species: Gathering groups consist of workers and small soldiers. Attacking groups only consist of large soldiers. They are kept around the queen and are only deployed to protect gathering groups or to invade enemy nests.

• Non-popymorphic species: Gathering groups consist of workers and soldiers. Attacking groups only consist of soldiers. They are only split from other gathering groups to invade enemy nests.

Actual players are more decisive and responsive so non-player colonies always need headstart and cheat to stay threatening. You can only encounter free food cheat in story levels and extra levels.

Nest buidling

Non-player colonies have predetermined nest designs. They can decide building order on their own. They can only build hexagon chambers and can't build highway.

Appearances

You can encounter non-player colonies in:

• Queen of the Hill

• The Harvest

• Possibly the Final Experiment

• Cold Blood

• A Bridge Too Far

• Triage

• Drive Them Back

• Last Mound Standing

• Babysitting

• The Other Foot

• Tug of War

• Hibernation

• Adventure

• Tug of War 2

• Tug of War 3

Custom games

Settings

You can play with or without other colonies in custom games. You must choose a color and a team for each colony before you start a custom game. You can only have up to 4 colonies and 4 teams in a single custom game.

Some colonies may have different start from story levels and extra levels.

• Leafcutter ant colonies have nineteen-tiled queen chambers.

• Matabele ant colonies must start with some soldier brood tiles.

• Termite colonies have nineteen-tiled queen chambers and must start with some lignocellulose storage tiles and some fungus storage tiles in custom games.

You can control temperament of non-player colonies: Docile, Timid, Balanced and Aggressive. It affects their aggressiveness and unit composition.

You can control headstart and cheat frequency of non-player colonies: None, Headstart, Underhanded, Cheater, Crooked and Corrupt. Non-player colonies can spawn units without requiring food or workers and gain free food over time. Cheat is automatically disabled when nest invasion is happening.

You can also control how quickly non-player colonies make decision.

You can control whether colonies can enter other nests.

Non-player colonies aren't affected by upkeep and randomized caverns.

Behaviors

Non-player colonies will keep all units outside to gather food. Nanitic workers only move inside to finish the assigned nest jobs when storage is full and will stay inside permanently after you have played for 30 minutes.

Non-player colonies can only control up to 3 pheromone groups. They can be tasked with either gathering resources or attacking enemy colonies. Non-player colonies can flexibly disable and enable gathering or attacking depending on the current task.

Gathering groups are kept inside if they can't find any food.

Non-player colonies will choose an enemy colony, which is the weakest in biomass, as their target after they have gathered enough food. They can either harass it by following its most recently placed pheromone markers or invade its nests. They will retreat and gather food after they have taken enough casualties.

• Docile colonies avoid intentional conflicts and stay in their territories.

• Aggressive colonies immediately and constantly invade the targeted nest.

Non-player colonies can't respond to nest invasion. They can't actively hunt uber creatures or titans either.

Nest building

Non-player colonies always start with the same predug nest and some resources. They usually work on 2 chambers at once. They upgrade storage and soldiers first and only upgrade workers after everything else has been finished.

Non-player colonies have predetermined nest designs which depend on species and temperament. They can decide building order on their own. They can only build hexagon chambers and can't build highway.

• Docile colonies have lots of workers.

• Timid colonies have balanced unit compositions.

• Balanced and aggressive colonies have lots of large soldiers.

Black ants/ Fire ants/ Little black ants/ Matabele ants

• 

  Docile

• 

  Timid

• 

  Balanced/ Aggressive

Wood ants

• 

  Docile

• 

  Timid

• 

  Balanced/ Aggressive

Big-headed ants

• 

  Docile

• 

  Timid

• 

  Balanced

• 

  Aggressive

Leafcutter ants

• 

  Docile

• 

  Timid

• 

  Balanced

• 

  Aggressive

Termites

• 

  Docile

• 

  Timid

• 

  Balanced/ Aggressive

Gene-thief ants

Gene-thief ant units are divided into 3 groups: workers, small soldiers and large soldiers. Large soldiers only include leafcutter ant majors and army ant majors. Unit composition is chosen depending on which unit groups they have access to.

If they have access to multiple unit options in the same group, they will choose randomly among the available options and build a chamber for each option.

If large soldiers aren't available, they are replaced with small soldiers. If small soldiers aren't available, they are replaced with workers.

• 

  Docile

• 

  Timid

• 

  Balanced

• 

  Agrressive

Trivia

(none)