Spawn Phase
After joining a match, the map goes through a "Spawn Phase". During this time all players can reconsider and change their spawn location until the phase ends and expansion/combat officially begins.
- Single player: 100 turns (≈10 seconds)
- Multiplayer · Random spawn: 150 turns (≈15 seconds)
- Multiplayer · Fixed spawn: 300 turns (≈30 seconds)
OpenFront runs at 1 tick ≈ 0.1 seconds (10 ticks/second). Convert time using "ticks ÷ 10 = seconds".
Spawn Immunity
After the game officially starts, each player automatically receives 50 ticks (5 seconds) of spawn immunity. During this time, no attacks from any source can hit you.
These 5 seconds are precious—most players use this time to expand their first ring of territory, ensuring population growth isn't interrupted. Bots and Nations have the same immunity duration, so "rushing a Bot at spawn" doesn't work.
Three Opening Priorities
- Location: Prioritize positions with balanced coastline + inland depth. Coast enables ports + trade ships, but pure coastal positions get pinched by two neighbors; pure inland has lower population cap and no trade income.
- First expansion direction: Push toward resource/chokepoint zones (straits, peninsulas, river valleys). Holding geographic chokepoints means defending against multiple opponents with minimal forces.
- Neighbor assessment: Observe neighbor expansion speed in the first 30 seconds. Nation difficulty can be roughly estimated from expansion curves:
- Easy: ×0.5
- Medium: ×0.75
- Hard: ×1.0 (same as Human)
- Impossible: ×1.25
- Bot: ÷3 (1/3 of base population cap)
Essential UI Numbers
- Troops / MaxTroops — Current troops / population cap, determines attack and defense ceiling.
- Gold — Universal currency for all construction, auto-generated.
- Attack ratio slider — Drag to set percentage of troops committed per attack.
- Build menu — Unified entry for City/Port/DefensePost/SAM/Silo/Factory.
- Radial menu (v24 redesign) — Right-click in your territory to quickly place buildings/select attack parameters.
First Expansion Rhythm
Simplified early troop growth formula: toAdd = (10 + troops^0.73 / 4) × (1 - troops / maxTroops). This means:
- The closer to population cap, the slower growth—staying idle leads to "population saturation" waste.
- Continuous expansion (constantly raising maxTroops) keeps the formula producing large increments.
In the first 60 seconds, expansion speed matters more than troop reserves. Accepting brief "negative balance" (troops dropping to 30%) to grab chokepoints is fine—you'll refill within seconds.
Common Beginner Mistakes
- Mindless spawn location: Spawning mid-continent without immediately relocating to coast means no ports or trade later.
- Building city too early: Spending 125k gold at 0 gold slows expansion. Wait until you have ~200-300 tiles before placing your first City.
- Wasting immunity window: Not fully utilizing the 5-second immunity period, missing peak expansion density.