# Bad luck or not enough saves? **URL:** \ **Category:** Hints and Tips\ **Created:** [March 14, 2020, 10:09am UTC](https://forums.snapshotgames.com/t/bad-luck-or-not-enough-saves/9906 "2020-03-14T10:09:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![SnackMuncher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/278dde/32.png) [@SnackMuncher](https://forums.snapshotgames.com/u/SnackMuncher)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2020, 10:09am UTC](https://forums.snapshotgames.com/t/bad-luck-or-not-enough-saves/9906/1 "2020-03-14T10:09:53Z")
Hey folks! I’ve come here to tell about my first attempt at Phoenix Point and ask a question regarding. So I got my backer’s copy and got to work. The game started nicely enough. I had a base in northern Africa, a couple of Havens around and early exploration went rather well, except for one or two missions that would have send me to South America, which seemed rather fare away that early in the game but “Hey, if that’s all…” I thought. Some time later, after I had rediscovered around 4 bases and upgraded them a bit, everything came apart rather fast. I was following the main mission in East Asia and got the message, that my earliest base, the main base, the way I upgraded it, was under siege and I had to get there in 4 or 5 hours to defend it. So, yeah… By the time my transport was above Eastern Europe, the base was gone. As I understand, that base is gone forever now. Oh, well. The crowdfunding pitch told me tat losing a single mission was not as catastrophic as it was in the modern XCOM, so I played on. Shortly after, I lost two soldiers in a mission. Again, I was under the impression that the game was still completable after that, so I wanted to recruit new soldiers. And saw their recruitment cost. I’d be bankrupt after getting one of them and me supply of new resources was gone with the first base. Frustrated, I started playing. Now, a long time after that I found the time to come here and tell this story. Here is my question: What gives? Was I just very unlucky or is this again a game where I should save often and “undo” every failure until I have a perfect run? Sorry for starting here so negatively, but damn… ---
**Author:** ![Vipre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/838e76/32.png) [@Vipre](https://forums.snapshotgames.com/u/Vipre)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2020, 10:36am UTC](https://forums.snapshotgames.com/t/bad-luck-or-not-enough-saves/9906/2 "2020-03-14T10:36:08Z")
A combination of bad luck and failure to plan ahead. Goal one is filling out your squad and exploring the areas near your first base. Goal two is a second squad, or at least the members for one. One squad goes to far off missions the other stays near to home for defense. North Africa I feel is a great start because it allows you to clear Europe early and still have all of Africa to explore. The game doesn’t coddle players. You have to plan ahead. On the plus side now you know more than when you started and hopefully won’t make that same mistake again. ---
**Author:** ![SnackMuncher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/278dde/32.png) [@SnackMuncher](https://forums.snapshotgames.com/u/SnackMuncher)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2020, 10:48am UTC](https://forums.snapshotgames.com/t/bad-luck-or-not-enough-saves/9906/3 "2020-03-14T10:48:08Z")
True, true. Not being coddled is a good thing, in my opinion. It just feels like a beginner’s trap that wasted a couple of hours for nothing. Anyway, thank you for clarifying. Maybe I’ll give it a second chance. Or are there any other pitfalls to keep in mind? ---
**Author:** ![Yokes](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/forums.snapshotgames.com/yokes/32/310_2.png) [@Yokes](https://forums.snapshotgames.com/u/Yokes)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2020, 10:49am UTC](https://forums.snapshotgames.com/t/bad-luck-or-not-enough-saves/9906/4 "2020-03-14T10:49:23Z")
> [@SnackMuncher](#): > > wasted a couple of hours for nothing. You don’t waste time when learning how to play strategy game. ---
**Author:** ![Vipre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/838e76/32.png) [@Vipre](https://forums.snapshotgames.com/u/Vipre)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2020, 10:58am UTC](https://forums.snapshotgames.com/t/bad-luck-or-not-enough-saves/9906/5 "2020-03-14T10:58:29Z")
> [@SnackMuncher](#): > > Or are there any other pitfalls to keep in mind? Not off the top of my head beyond standard genre tropes like don’t upgrade your base too fast. A training facility and a food production facility early will bring you the most benefit. ---
**Author:** ![SnackMuncher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/278dde/32.png) [@SnackMuncher](https://forums.snapshotgames.com/u/SnackMuncher)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2020, 10:59am UTC](https://forums.snapshotgames.com/t/bad-luck-or-not-enough-saves/9906/6 "2020-03-14T10:59:33Z")
> Blockquote > You don’t waste time when learning how to play strategy game. When the lessons takes 5 minutes to learn but hours to get there, the game just wasted my time. It would have been enough to put a warning in that lost bases are lost and you have to be around to defend them. ---
**Author:** ![mcarver2000](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/forums.snapshotgames.com/mcarver2000/32/2435_2.png) [@mcarver2000](https://forums.snapshotgames.com/u/mcarver2000)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2020, 11:02am UTC](https://forums.snapshotgames.com/t/bad-luck-or-not-enough-saves/9906/7 "2020-03-14T11:02:34Z")
One would assume that you are playing with the latest patch/hotfix. If so, one should have at least 12 hours notice of a PP base being attacked. But that may depend on the difficulty level one is playing at. At Rookie level I am receiving a 24 hour notice of an impending attack. From the [Leviathan Patch Notes](https://forums.snapshotgames.com/t/hotfix-patch-1-0-56200-13-03-2020/9884/4): > Phoenix Base Attacks > > You will now have a minimum of 12 hours to prepare and respond to an attack on one of your bases. ---
**Author:** ![SnackMuncher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/278dde/32.png) [@SnackMuncher](https://forums.snapshotgames.com/u/SnackMuncher)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2020, 11:05am UTC](https://forums.snapshotgames.com/t/bad-luck-or-not-enough-saves/9906/8 "2020-03-14T11:05:33Z")
Nah, that was shortly after launch. Kinda soured my experience, though. Thanks for pointing it out. ---
**Author:** ![dragonfire](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/forums.snapshotgames.com/dragonfire/32/2085_2.png) [@dragonfire](https://forums.snapshotgames.com/u/dragonfire)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2020, 5:36am UTC](https://forums.snapshotgames.com/t/bad-luck-or-not-enough-saves/9906/9 "2020-03-15T05:36:59Z")
@Vipre can i ask why food production? ive seem to have excess of food, like im running out of everything else, cause i guess i prev made the mistake of investing more into weapons than more members so i had one OP team and failed to be close enough with the slow ship and lost my one base i invested heavily (which i learned through trial and error) ---
**Author:** ![Yokes](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/forums.snapshotgames.com/yokes/32/310_2.png) [@Yokes](https://forums.snapshotgames.com/u/Yokes)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2020, 10:41am UTC](https://forums.snapshotgames.com/t/bad-luck-or-not-enough-saves/9906/10 "2020-03-15T10:41:52Z")
> [@SnackMuncher](#): > > When the lessons takes 5 minutes to learn but hours to get there, the game just wasted my time. Not really. You need to master strategy games in many days not in 5 minutes. If it were minutes then it would be boring to replay it. ---
**Author:** ![Vipre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/838e76/32.png) [@Vipre](https://forums.snapshotgames.com/u/Vipre)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2020, 12:20pm UTC](https://forums.snapshotgames.com/t/bad-luck-or-not-enough-saves/9906/11 "2020-03-15T12:20:21Z")
> [@dragonfire](#): > > why food production? Food is Money. It’s the only resource you can produce and can be traded away for soldiers and other resources. There are differing opinions on the worth of food production but I think at a bare minimum one should at least produce enough to counter the drain from their own squads. ---
**Author:** ![pantolomin](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/forums.snapshotgames.com/pantolomin/32/1398_2.png) [@pantolomin](https://forums.snapshotgames.com/u/pantolomin)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2020, 7:10am UTC](https://forums.snapshotgames.com/t/bad-luck-or-not-enough-saves/9906/12 "2020-03-16T07:10:11Z")
For food production, someone made a calculation in an other Thread about the return on investment ([PhoenixPoint: "Food Production" takes 2 month (ingame) until amortization](https://forums.snapshotgames.com/t/phoenixpoint-food-production-takes-2-month-ingame-until-amortization/8794)). It took 62 days to overcome the initial investment. However, it’s decomposed this way: - RoI on material: 37.5 days (31.25 days if you always trade with Synedrion with a 5:4 exchange rate) - RoI on tech: 25 days So, unless you take the Synedrion route that makes heavy use of “tech”, you will be trading for “material” only and get the RoI earlier. And if you 50% diplomacy with Anu (or steal their research) you can have a boost in food production (25%) making it even better and a RoI on “material” of 30 days. Trading with Synedrion with a rate of 5:4, only 25 days. So clearly worth the medium time investment, but a trade-off. ---
**Author:** ![MichaelIgnotus](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/forums.snapshotgames.com/michaelignotus/32/1793_2.png) [@MichaelIgnotus](https://forums.snapshotgames.com/u/MichaelIgnotus)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2020, 1:29pm UTC](https://forums.snapshotgames.com/t/bad-luck-or-not-enough-saves/9906/13 "2020-03-16T13:29:31Z")
Lairs are _really hard!_ So make sure you take your top squad and don’t go in half-cocked. When you first encounter Sirens, they are going to be a shock. I’ll leave you to work out how to deal with them, but there are plenty of posts on this forum if you need guidance. You’ve probably already worked out that cover doesn’t work like XCOM. The safest place to be is one step back from the edge of a corner, where nothing can see you - and the beauty of the AP system is that you can step up to the corner, take your shot, then step back again if you don’t want to set up an overwatch screen. Invest in a couple of Training Centres early, if not more - recruits are expensive and you need to get them trained up to scratch as fast as possible. This has recently been nerfed, so that you can’t get a Lvl 7 Squad faster in training than you can with real combat experience - which is a good thing in my book - but you still need a dedicated training camp in which to level up your rookies. Also, don’t neglect Laboratories. I made the mistake of frankly ignoring them, and now that I’m reaching the endgame, I wish I had invested more in cutting down research time. ---
**Author:** ![Blathergut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/57b2e6/32.png) [@Blathergut](https://forums.snapshotgames.com/u/Blathergut)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2020, 2:58pm UTC](https://forums.snapshotgames.com/t/bad-luck-or-not-enough-saves/9906/14 "2020-03-16T14:58:22Z")
I usually would build a fabrication plant first. In current game, I gained two more from additional bases and thought I’d hit the motherlode. But…with recruits all coming w armour, I found I didn’t really need all that production so much. Nice when building a transport, but otherwise…