StarCraft/Evolves

Evolves is a game set on a 64x64 tile set, on the Space Platform terrain pallet. The whole map is visible to all players, free of fog-of-war, usually played in a 2v2, 3v3 or 1v1 setup. In the center is an inlaid area upon which ground units cannot step into with 8 beacons: Evolves is a type of game called "mass attack" meaning a "masser" is used to make most of one's units attack at once when a player moves their SCV to one of the eight beacons, which represent strategically important points on the map. When the SCV is moved onto a beacon, all of the units he controls attack-move to the point. This is called "massing". A player accumulates units which are "spawned" under his two science vessels or "spawners" roughly every second. These science vessels are also invincible meaning they cannot be attacked. If the unit that is spawned under the science vessel comes out onto the invalid area, it is destroyed. Each player has bunker at each corner of the map. The bunker has five thousand hit points (some map have 7000 or 9999) and strong defenders inside of it. The point of the game is to kill all the enemy bunkers (or gaining 5 million points). If the bunker is destroyed, that player loses. The main game play of Evolves revolves around the spawned units being dictated by your kills score: the higher the score is, the better the units.

There are also variations within evolves maps. Some may offer you a choice of evolves while others may offer you 'lifelines'.

Terminology
5mil – A game that ends at 5 million points Agro – Unit auto attacks Afk - away from keyboard Bunkermen – The ghosts/marines that live in your bunker Bomb – Making all your units follow a single unit so they can be maneuvered without “massing” BSing - Short for backstabbing, when a player changes alliances with hostile intentions. Corner – Hiding in the corner behind your base Counter – A strategy that refutes another strategy Counterfeed – feeding your enemy back after he feeds you. Evo – Gaining the next level. Fishing - When a player draws out enemy units. eg. attracting them to one's bunker. Feed – Sending units to the enemy to make them evolve. FFA - Free for All, everyone for themselves. This is usually decided before the game starts. Flanking – Going around the side of your enemy to gain more kills Freeze – when units stand still because of the amount of units on the map. Gooning – sticking your enemy on dragoons which are bad. Hiding – Placing units behind your bunker so that they are hard for your enemy to attack. Lag – When lots of units attack at the same time freezing up their animation Lot feed – the basic first feed that many players do Luring – Luring individual units of your enemies away from their bunker to kill them individually or using a tank to lure units from an enemies army Masser – your Scv. Massing – Moving your whole army to one of the eight points on the map. Meat shield – Using your tank, a bunker, or stronger units as a shield for your army Micro – Short for micro manage, sending individual groups of units at a time to harass the enemy or to try and skim kills. Mid – An agreement for both people to mass the middle at the same time. MM – Map max, when no more units can be made Pulling – Allying your opponent than running back to your base. Running – Running away when the enemy attacks your base in preparation to save it. Spawn – Making units from your vessels Spawner – your science vessels Splash – damage that can hurt more than one unit at a time. Split – When your air units split in half causing them to die. Sweep – Sweeping the map with air units when ground units thin out Throw off – Killing an enemy that’s attacking your base by freeing it from his units. Watching – Putting your vessels in mid so that ground units are instantly killed allowing you to watch.

Manners
When both players agree to go “mid” they do so at the same time, and no one backs out. When the map maxes both players must go “mid”. It cannot remain a tie forever. You cannot “feed” off your ally. If someone says afk you do not attack them.

Scores
For most versions of evolves, the scores are:
 * 0 - Zerglings
 * 2250 - Zealots
 * 4000 - Firebats
 * 7000 - Hydralisks
 * 16,000 - Goliaths
 * 28,000 - Dragoons
 * 40,000 - Wraiths
 * 70,000 - Hunter Killers (Hero Hydras)
 * 110,000 - Mutalisks
 * 200,000 - Fenix Dragoons (Hero Dragoons
 * 340,000 - Scouts
 * 600,000 - Archons
 * 900,000 - Tom Kazansky (Hero Wraiths)
 * 1,100,000 - Battlecruisers
 * 1,600,000 - Marines/Ghosts
 * 2,000,000 - Alan Schezars (Hero goliath's)
 * 3,000,000 - Mojos (hero scouts)    (In some maps Mojos + Archon)
 * 4,000,000 - Kukulzas (Hero mutalisk)   (In some maps keep getting scout, or Kukulzas or Guardian + Scourge)
 * Remember, when you have exactly the amount of points you need to evolve, you spawn both the evolved unit and the previous unit. For example, if you have exactly 40,000 points, you would get both Dragoons and Wraiths.  One exception to this is that at only 2250 you would spawn both zealots and zerglings.

What beats what
Not all evolutions are equal. Some are better or worse than the ones after them. The order of what beats what is as follows. This is also for theory purposes only, if two armies made entirely out of each of the units met who would win. (only shows for units next in line to them such as a hero hydralisk can beat a goon but thats not directly shown) Also the format is WorseZealotsdragoonsAlan<Mojo<Kukulzas.

Wraiths vs. Hunter Killers is disputable. Wraiths will win if wraiths are massed together and positioned appropriately, but Hunter Killers will win if wraiths are fanned out. Hunter Killers usually win unless the Wraiths player stalls for a bit. Same logic applies to Scouts vs. Archons though Archons would win if used in tandem with Scouts. Lastly, Fenix totally obliterates Archons if level delayed. Shout out from 218939@UsWest.

Basic strategy
While most of the strategy is too complicated to cover here, a brief overview is provided. Most of the strategy in evolves is concerned with two basic things: keeping your advantage or gaining one. Because of the unit balance in evolves it can sometimes be a lot easier to make a comeback then to prevent your enemy from making a comeback. To be a successful player you need to know how to retain your advantage and make it bigger throughout each successive stage. But you also need to know what to do if your enemy employs a particularly clever trick and takes a sharp turn in the game or is consistently winning all the battles. Comebacks can come in several forms. You can put everything on one shot, do-or-die, if you win the game is yours, if you lose there is no comeback. This can either take the form of a particularly risky stratagem or it can take the place of a gigantic battle where you have the disadvantage. You can try to eliminate your enemies advantage slowly but surely, wearing away at his units, retreating, prolonging the game, and harassment. As long as you still survive you still have a chance and you can turn the course of the battle slowly but surely. You can complicate the game, this puts your skill against your enemies directly. If you are a better player then your enemy but have somehow fallen behind you can introduce many variables, be aggressive to the point of silliness even when losing, try to trick your enemy into massing your base by purposely losing battles, there are many possibilities but all are hard. The last way is you can look ahead in the game and force your enemy to fall into a risky but well placed trap.

The main driver for strategy in evolves seems to be a question of how much you want to win. From the beinning you could trap a user on bats and siege tank their bunker to death. What's opposing strategy is how much fun each player should get. Strategy will therefore make the difference between a 5 minute game and an hour long game.

Basic strategy
In evolves, to succeed, you need to have the initiative, look ahead, and always have a strategy chain. The person who guides the course of the game has a big advantage. You have the initative if you are using stratagems that your opponent needs to respond too instead of visa versa. You are taking control of the game and forcing your opponent to make choices that you can predict and counter. If you have the initiative not only can you predict what your enemy will do but you can plan farther ahead in the game, you’ll be able to simulate battles because you know the possible battles, and the possible outcomes, and while there is always an element of predictability knowing what your enemy does and will do and why he does and will do it is of great importance.

Basic Tactics
Tactics is a whole branch in its own right, very few of even the best evolves players can fully master it. Tactics is being able to win when your enemy has the exact same army, number of units, and type as you. Knowing how to consistently win against your enemy over and over again in battles gives you the advantage that you need.

Ground tactics
The basic tactic for ground units is to rush the enemy or create a key position near the mid point area. From there they will rush the enemy and try to kill them and if not they will fatally wound them. Another tactic is to swarm your units at your base as a defensive maneuver.

Air tactics
The basic tactic for air units is to swarm all the air units at your base by massing them there. After the player thinks he has enough air units to kill his enemy he masses it toward their base. This tactic is incredibly idiotic at a certain point in most air evolves. At this point in the game, your enemies have corsairs and valkaries, which have splash. Your opponent can send about 12 corsairs to your base, and if you have a swarm of air, the corsair will destroy all of it in about 2 seconds.

Tank tactics
it is smarter to move your tank back and forth between you and your opponents armies, thus it being the stronger unit takes all the fire of your enemy allowing you to get ahead in kills and points.

Stages
Evolves can be divided into stages where gambits take place, the stages are: Beginning game Middle game End game The inequality of units makes for some of the most varied and intriguing game play available for a custom map: the evolution tree is almost exponential. If a player gets an advantage in kills, he can then use that advantage to accumulate even more kill points, because of his superior units. But if you know what you are doing it is not hard to recover from most situations.
 * 1) Zerglings, Zealots, Firebats
 * 2) Hydralisks, Goliaths, Dragoons
 * 1) Wraiths, Hunter Killers
 * 2) Mutalisks, Fenix Dragoons
 * 3) Scouts, Archons, Tom Kazansky
 * 1) Battlecruisers, Marines/Ghosts, Alan Schezars
 * 2) Mojos, Kukulzas

Evolves among experts is played out in a series of turns. When one person puts a stratagem into action it forces the enemy to counter it. The best moves are the ones which force the enemy to counter with a move that requires lots of skill and very fast thinking and decision making to pull, thus making the enemy have a high chance of messing up and putting themself in a losing position. Battle strategy is not as important in evolves as in other games like "Simpson’s mega carnage" but it can still be very useful especially while your tank is alive and during air attacks.

Evolves strategy instead of battle tactics centers around feeding, timing, and planning ahead. Players can form their strategy over what "end point" they want to achieve. In evolves an endpoint is where the opponent has gotten so far behind that he has no possible chance of recovering. Usually in evolves these endpoints are at bridges between levels (where one player is making a different kind of unit for good or bad) by the time that the enemy has reached the same level as you, you already have a large enough army of stronger units to destroy them. Someone may want to plan their strategy around scouts vs. goons (scouts always win) or BCs vs. marines/ghost (BCs always win) Usually in loosing positions that are not "end points" players "can" make a comeback. But if you are playing against someone a lot better than you they will try every way to keep their advantage and make it larger. Sometimes new players, derisively called "noobs" will think they are ahead in a situation when they are really not because the enemy will have planned 15 or 20 minutes in advance and put themselves in a "Behind" situation on purpose.

A typical Evolves game plays out as a series of battles in which players accumulate a large enough advantage to defeat each other. There are a number of balance flaws inherent in Evolves, which, if known, can be exploited to great effect.

Beginning Game
Players try to exploit the fact that the first level is better then the second level in the game to their advantage. Which usually requires feeding or counter feeding, both of which can win the first level for you depending on how well you do them. In the opening, you do not want to attack their base even if you far outnumber them in units. Unless you are purposely feeding, do not attack bases before mutalisks.

A strategy commonly used to get ahead in the beginning is called "micro" short for "micro manage". "Microing" is sending individual groups of units to pick off straggler units of the enemy. Micro is formed of strategies such as luring, ambushing, and distracting. When two good players play each other a micro will just lead to either a lock-down where both players kill the same amount of units, or since micro is easier to counter then do the defending player will always win.

The main point of micro in the beginning is to be the first to gain 4000 points and get firebats, which are vastly stronger, then zergling of zealots. If one player receives firebats first they will have a strong advantage, which can be conserved throughout the game. When two good players play they will usually receive firebats at the same point of time and end up with a rough tie at the beginning (someone is ahead but not by enough that it cant be reversed). It is not until the later game when risks are taken that one person can get drastically ahead.

Some tips for the beginning are:
 * 1) Hotkey both your science vessels on 1
 * 2) Get 3 marines and 1 ghost
 * 3) At the start Feed 46 zerglings to have your opponent get zealots (3 groups of 12 and one of 10) you want to make sure to get yourself as many kills as you can without evolving to zealots yourself. Several ways to do this are; hotkeying the four groups, waiting till your vessel has 19 energy to mass (that means start moving the scv towards the beacon), or running your zergling feed behind their base than attacking from under them, or just bring the two vessels and all the zerglings to your enemy's base, but starting pulling back when he/she have 2100 (that means start moving vessel and all the rest of the lings on the way back to your own base).
 * 4) If you are fed counter feed and use only zealots if you feed them back with zerglings you don't accomplish anything. Make sure you send the right amount of zealots so you don't over feed. Since zealots are worth 200 points a pop and 12 zealots feeds them fully if they have 0 points, every 200 points they gained by feeding you, you subtract one zealot from your counterfeed. So if they have 700 points you subtract 3 from 12, if they have 1000, 5, and so on...
 * 5) Pick off with your zerglings outlying and unprotected zealots (You should use 12-24 zerglings and set them on hotkey, depending on the points you have.  If you have more than 3500, 12 zerglings will be enough for you to evolve, but if you have less than that 24 would be best.  If your opponent uses his/her zerglings to block, you can still continue to micro if you have 24 zerglings on hotkey. Try to lure to follow you with 5-6 zerglings and attack them with all your zerglings, if they only moved 12 or less zerglings go on and micro, you would win, but if there are too much zerglings guarding the zealots it wouldn't be wise to do so).
 * 6) If you are fed to zealots instead of counterfeeding you can try and micro to firebats directly. To get firebats at the same time as you your enemy needs to kill 2 lings for every one it looses. This trick requires high proficiency in micro and should only be used by pros
 * 7) During the first mid mass move your tank back in forth in between the battle to deflect hits (Place and move your tank in front of your army (in the battle zone)). Try to get tank in front without getting too much hit. (In order to do that, don't send it nose to nose with your opponent's army. Someone between middle of the two battling armies would be sufficient.  Also patrolling from side to side is a good idea.)  Use your tank to follow their ships.  Generally if you have lost your tank before wraiths you have a good chance of losing the beginning game. Do not siege you tank unless you're microing. Also make your tank target their tank to kill it (and siege it to kill ghost or other bunkermen if you ever seen one around).  By the time you get to wraiths, the tank doesn't really matter anymore.  Usually the wraiths do not target the tank, and if they do they finish it off quickly.
 * 8) Use a ghost in your bunker to "lock-down" the enemy tank forcing it to become immobile. Also if you think your enemy wont notice you can use your bunker marines to attack the enemy tank killing it quickly. All bunker men die in one hit so be careful when using them.
 * 9) If you notice your enemy trying to lock-down your tank, place your tank in siege mode and kill the ghost before it is close enough to lock-down you.
 * 10) A common strategy is to save many of their zealots in the beginning, and then to mass mid with them only when you get your tank.  This way, it clogs up the tanks movement while their tank is free to move around.  Try not to get into this situation, and if you do make sure to lock-down their tank.
 * 11) Hydras are better than goliaths and goliaths are a lot better than dragoons (hydras are a lot better than dragoons as well, so you can feed your opponent to goons and then hide behind your base). If you are in a losing situation after a mid battle you may want to run knowing you are on a lower level than them (thus in this case building stronger units)
 * 12) Attack your enemy’s tank with ground attack only units (zerglings, zealots, firebats) to keep it in one place.  (Use wraith if it is very well protected, that means, since your ground units are in front, put it above the ground units and attack the tank, thus, the wraith will not be killed.)
 * 13) Take the flank closest to the edge of the map, if you can force the enemy back at that point you will have a slight advantage.
 * 14) Get ready and prepared to retreat if you think the battle may turn against you towards the middle game.
 * 15) If you get wraiths and the battle is still thick retreat with your vessels to behind your base. (It could also be used on the side to attack zealots, firebats, or zerglings)
 * 16) If your enemy is on hydras and you’re on goons you can siege your tank near their base therefore luring their units to attack your tank. You will place either goliaths or hydras behind your tank so that when they attack your tank your units will snipe theirs. If you do this correctly you might be able to micro from goons to wraiths while your enemy is still stuck on hydras or goliaths.
 * 17) If you are stuck on a level like goons while your enemy has goliaths you can always build a lot of them in preparation for a hero-goon feed.
 * 18) A risky strategy that nonetheless sometimes works is to mass their base with your whole army, they get fed to goons while you stay on hydras. The feed is so quick that they don't have any goliaths or hydras to get kills in a tank micro.  DO NOT leave their tank alive or mobile when you use this strategy.  It generally does NOT work against pros, as they can use their tank and hydras to micro to wraiths.

Be sure to follow your enemy’s science vessels mercilessly around to ensure that the units they produce are quickly killed, and surround their other stock of units with your units. Using the follow function of your science vessels to theirs can accomplish this quite nicely. There is a popular exploit in the beginning game of “feeding” - giving a player units to advance their kill score - an enemy to advance them to zealots. While the premise of Evolves is to provide a successively better progression of units as players accumulate kills, there are balance flaws. In a battle between a player with zerglings and a player with zealots, the zerg player will win. Because of this, you can use this technique to trick a player into thinking they have the advantage, making them over confident in massing you. Most of the beginning game tricks only work with "noobs" and it is only later in the game that skill begins to show.

Middle game
The middle game deals mainly in air masses and goon feeding. Air masses are harder to pull off and require more skill than ground masses so even if a player is behind in unit numbers they can still make a comeback without feeding. In air masses always follow the army with your vessel because your old units will freeze up and "lag" newly spawned units however are not frozen and do much more damage than lagged members of your army. In air masses you can also lure (thus split) a portion of your enemies army. Since all air drifts, your enemy’s army will expand from his base (if he forgets to keep it condensed). When his air drifts far enough out you can mass his base and pit your whole army against just a small portion of his. The longer he takes to mass back the more kills you get. The mid game is interesting because in every part of it their are opportunities for surprise, depending, of course, on how good or risky you are. There are times in the mid game, when wraiths are better than hydras, hydras better than mutalisks, goons better than mutalisks, scouts better than archons, and wraiths better than archons. So while rules of thumb are usually right and good to follow, especially if you’re a beginner, they are not set in stone.

One of the main options in the mid game is goon-feeding. Always if it is feasible feed your enemy to goons. Mutalisks and hydras are a lot better than hero goons if your enemy has hero goons and they do not counterfeed they will loose. There are of course exceptions to this; you do not want to feed them with your mutalisks or feed them if you don't have enough units to defend your base.

Here are several situation where you want to feed and situations to use them in. Rough point values will be provided which can be used for beginners but don't get attached to them:

Note: When feeding do not follow your army with your spawners like you usually should. You want them to stay at all times near your bunker for protection.

Wraiths vs. Hydras: Wraiths are worth more points than hydras and an individual wraith is weaker than a hydra. Wraiths however in groups are stronger than groups of hydras; wraiths give the enemy more points though so in a straight out mass hydras should win. The > and < chart at the beginning shows hydras as better because they have value later on in the game while wraiths do not, but an experienced player would rather have wraiths than hydras. If one finds themselves with wraiths and the enemy with hydras they should gather the right amount of wraiths and FEED which results in the enemy being "gooned". If you have too many wraiths you'll end up feeding your enemy to scouts, which would cause you to loose, and if you have too little wraiths your enemy will not have been feed enough and can then avoid future feedings. Once your enemy gets 200,000 points and goons you may find that you have too many wraiths still attacking getting your enemy closer and closer to scouts. IF you find that this has happened you ant to pull back your remaining wraiths in groups of 12 to your base where they will be temporarily safe (or you can temporarily ally, which will be talked about later.)

Miscellaneous units vs. Miss units: This sometimes happens when you and your enemy have built up a large army at the beginning of the game. You may still have surviving units from every level but depending how the game went your army might have less or more point value than your enemies. If you find yourself behind in points with the same size army you want to make your army attack his base. You will suffer more temporarily (feeding your enemy more, and you less) therefore your enemy gets hero goons first while you are still building mutalisks. The main risk for this is you often overestimate your armies feeding potential and by the time it is over you have lost your army with nothing to gain.

Hydras vs. Hydras: You want to feed in the same way as wraiths, but since hydras are worth less then wraiths and easier to pull back you do not need to be as careful with numbers (as long as you don't overfeed a ton). You want to mass a fairly large army before you feed because the bigger the army the more damage it can do. It is hard to do but good if you are behind 20 or so thousand points.

Hydras vs. Mutalisks: You want to keep a large chunk of hydras in your base even while your feeding (do not send your whole army out)

Mutalisks vs. Mutalisks: If your enemy has over 170,000 points you should do it. If your enemy has a lower amount of points you will sacrifice too many mutalisks in your feed.

Once you feed your enemy will have no choice but to attack your bunker, they might take massive casualties but they still have a much larger army then yourself. The best counter and only counter for them massing your base is to hide. You bring your vessels to your corner, which is an inch or so (on screen) away from your base. That is the farthest away point you can be from your base and defend it. Since your base is blocking attacks from two sides and the boundaries of the game are blocking attacks from the other two sides your units will be safest there. Hydras are better base defenders than mutalisks, so you want to make sure all of yours are attacking. If you get mutalisks when the enemy attacks your base manually shove all your mutalisks in the corner so that they are unreachable, after you have around 40-60 mutalisks you mass and use them to defend your base.

If you are on the offensive and are being fed you:


 * 1) Always want to make sure you attack the "feed" with your whole army as to suffer minimum casualties.
 * 2) Always know what your enemy is planning.
 * 3) If you have over 190,000 points and your enemy is sending small feeds towards you, you want to ally them and "dance around" your units will take hits but if you keep moving your enemy will not be able to kill too much of you while you continue making two mutalisks a second. If your enemy however is killing at least two of your units a second you want to unally them.
 * 4) If you get fed to goons be quick always attack the base
 * 5) If you have lots of air units ally your enemy before you hit his base so your air units keep drifting and flow into your enemy’s corner where you unally him.
 * 6) When in your enemies base manually attack the corner so that his base deflects the smallest possible number of shots.
 * 7) Place your spawners in the enemies corner near his vessels if you can take the corner your job gets a lot easier.
 * 8) If you can stay in his base until you get scouts, if you have scouts and your enemy has goons you have won.
 * 9) If the going gets rough run it is better to finish the battle with a disadvantage then to risk a loss.

Goons-hero wraiths also have their own set of strategy.

In full frontal battles normally Goons<Wraiths<Scouts<Archons but at this point in the game there's a lot of opportunity for combos especially since your own points will spike after scouts.

Some pros and cons for the units:

Dragoons:

Advantage: Ranged so they destroy archons and ground so archons auto attack them. They are also great meat shields against archons and wraiths. Also good for feeding.

Weakness: Very bad vs. scouts and wraiths, weak, and don't attack much. If you get scouts a while after your opponent it is very hard to come back.

Scouts:

Advantage: Very good against air, freeze up air units, shoot fast, easy to micro with and bomb, beat goons and wraiths and give an extra boost against BCs, can stay behind lines and snipe archons.

Weakness: Freeze up themselves making them easy archon fodder; you can get lucky/unlucky in air battles. (Either you or your enemy makes a mistake)

Archons:

Advantage: Splash they utterly destroy air units, high health, great with lag, a small amount can still be a big help.

Weakness: Not ranged, auto attack ground, can cause damage to your allies in air mass as well.

Wraiths:

Advantage: Good back up at archons vs. archons, longer ground range.

Weakness: If you get stuck on them while your enemy has BCs your dead, Archon fodder (not as bad as scouts but still dead)

Before tsplash so even a small amount can do a ton of damage to condensed air. Since they come up usually during a scouts vs. scouts battle they are especially effective since scouts lag giving the (fresh) archons lots of time to attack. When you get archons in an air battle make lots of archons over a large distance both horizontally and vertically. The spread out archons will act as if they are doing damage to the scout army as a whole (since they splash) make sure to place archons either under the thickest part of your enemies units and around your own units for defense. The possible scenarios and basic strategies are listed here is some advice on archons:

They are

Here are some possible scenarios/strategies that you might run into:

Goons vs. Goons (Even)

Take the flank closest to the wall. When you get scouts (340,000) pull back everything since they die easily in the fray and are more important later (if your opponent is close to scout too don't pull back and try and get more advantages). If the enemy’s goons thin out try and do a sweep of the area and if you time it right you'll conserve some of your own goons.

Goons vs. Goons with an advantage

Immediately when you get scouts pull back, make sure you do a sweep to save your larger army. If you get archons while your enemy has goons left move your spawners behind your army so the archons don't die in the fray. (More archons you saved the better it will be, because you can have advantages in air mass)

Goons vs. Goons with a disadvantage Scouts back to save all of them. You can either make it lots of scouts+archons vs. little scouts+more archons (a winning situation for you)(so you have extra scouts) you might even want to consider feeding (but you HAVE TO MICRO). Or if you are confident in your abilities you can try and pull off something fancy with either a wraith feed or a scouts vs. archons battle. You want to make sure your enemy gets archons first.

Goons vs. Scouts

Get scouts as fast as you can, every second you wait you dig yourself a deeper grave. Just make sure not to micro since its too slow, don't be afraid to sacrifice your goons if you have to (You can lure your enemy's scout). (Try to avoid this situation because they are extremely hard to come back if you are fighting pros)

Scouts vs. Goons

Never divide your army, mass to intercept the feed, and dance around. Every second you keep your enemy from getting scouts you get more and more ahead. By the time your enemy has scouts you might already be ahead enough point wise to win after archons. Or maybe even enough units to take the base.

Scouts vs. Scouts

Scouts freeze up. Points are extremely important in this stage. Make sure to bring your vessel with you the second you mass mid. Circle the perimeter of the battle spawning new scouts. There is lots of strategy in air masses including flanking and pulling but its usually complex and dangerous for a beginner to try so just stick to making new scouts around your enemies scouts and remember to constantly mass mid. (every second at the start and then every 10 or so once the armies have met) Try to have your scouts drift towards the middle of the map so that archons cant hit them. Also if you notice your enemy vessels near your units you can always pull those units away to a safer location.

Scouts vs. scouts with a disadvantage

You’re ahead in points and closer to archons than your enemy. If you’re ahead by at least 8-15K points you can win at archons. When you mid you'll have enough time alone with archons to decimate his scouts if you’re ahead by enough you might even consider a surprise attack on his bunker. Your enemy will be thinking of ways to get ahead so try to always know what he's doing.

Scouts vs. Scouts with an advantage

Your behind in points but your enemy is constantly looking for a situation to attack you. Try your enemy’s patience, tempt him by offering up a confrontational situation but make sure that it’s favorable to you.

Scouts vs. Scouts+archons

This is when you want to micro; your building up scouts so you have the potential to have a lot more then your enemy, if you can micro to archons (to use as a meat shield) you have the advantage, but if you cant or if your enemy finds a good spot to mass your base you could loose. You can also try a wraith feed but that is dangerous.

Scouts vs. Archons

A rarer situation but same as above with the exception that if you mass with small amounts of units the scouts will win.

Scouts+archons vs. scouts

You want to make sure your opponent has lots of scouts when you mass him, if he micros counter micro, and the second he gets archons mass his bunker.

Scouts+archons vs. Scouts+archons

You want to make sure your scouts are behind your archons. You want to build units directly in front of your enemies scouts so the splash damage hits them even if your archons auto attack his archons. Also make archons in front of your scouts so that his archons attack your new archons instead of your old archons under your scouts.

Archons+wraiths vs. archons

Use the wraiths in the same way as the scouts but since you are producing them you can also make wraiths over the gap in the mid. To do this, move your ships to the mid, just close enough to fire on the archons. The archons, due to their low range, will not be able to fire back. More importantly, you will create a large wedge where you will be able to maneuver your archons and create a bigger front.

Archons+wraiths vs. wraiths

Hotkey your archons so that when the enemy wraiths freeze up your archons can choose which clump to go under.

Archons vs. wraiths

Archons beat wraiths so wait till your enemy has a large number of units then either go mid or mass his base.

Wraiths vs. Archons

You might want to consider feeding your enemy to marines/ghosts. Hero wraiths loose to archons and are worth more points. When massing make sure that you get as much air in the center as you can. Also if your enemy has a small amount of archons mass his base and pull back at bcs.

Wraiths vs. Wraiths

Treat like a normal air battle, sometimes if possible pull and see if you can leave your enemy stuck on wraiths while you have BCs

End game
The end game exploits the BC>Marine>Goliath unit strengths. This is the second time in evolves where there's a pattern where it gets worse for two levels before getting better. Since the levels are spaced so far apart if your behind in points, have the same number of units, and not dead yet, you will most likely win. Or if you have more points and can brave it out you win once 5 million is hit. Some tips for end game are:
 * 1) Save your bcs
 * 2) If you have hero ghosts lock down Bcs if they have enough energy
 * 3) Send units to feed your enemy and then hide behind your base
 * 4) If they are force to attack your base with Bcs after they have evolves go to the middle and build BCs, bcs attack the bunker first over newly spawned units (Tail your opponent's unit and make sure they don't generate).
 * 5) Pack your ghosts/marines tightly together.
 * 6) If you get goliaths use them as a meat shield in front of your ghosts/marines.
 * 7) Ghosts/marines die fast to the bunker.
 * 8) Don’t be fooled by goliath's air damage. When lots of them are massing their turrets "lock up" and aren't able to fire.
 * 9) Scouts can be used to sweep the remaining goliaths because of their boosted health.
 * 10) In some evolves maps you will evolve to hero mutalisk at 4 million points, some of them you will just keep getting scout, and still there are maps where you get guardian and scourge.

The Bomb (older versions of map)
In older versions of Evolves, there was no SCV that could order all of a player's units to Attack-Move a location (in other words, no massing). In those days, groups of units had to be ordered to attack individually.

One trick that was used in those versions - and is still used in current versions, albeit less frequently - is the Bomb. A "bomb" is a large mass of flying units, all ordered to follow one specific flying unit (the "fuse" unit). Usually the "fuse" unit is hotkeyed and ordered to Patrol so it doesn't get lost in the crowd.

Once a desired quantity of flyers has been accumulated, the fuse unit is ordered to Move into a critical enemy location. The fuse will be quickly killed, instantly relieving the entire mass of their Follow duty and freeing them to attack nearby enemies (the bomb explodes).

The main advantage of this technique, as is with traditional bombs, is the ability to place the explosion. If an entire mass of flyers was sent to Attack-Move a location, they would begin attacking as soon as they reached the enemy's frontline. A bomb, in contrast, allows you to get somewhat past the enemy's frontline before the bomb explodes. In fact, a well-navigated fuse unit can weave its way deep into enemy territory before being killed, effecting a more penetrating explosion.

Temporary Allying
In 2-on-2 games, one downside to mass-attacking an opponent's base is that once his units are destroyed, your units will fixate on attacking his base. Even if you try to mass elsewhere, say to the other opponent's base, your units will not budge until the first base is destroyed. This leaves them more susceptible to attack, because their attention becomes divided between the base and attacking units. Moreover, they tend to form a "ring" around the base instead of a tight mass of units, which is tactically stronger.

One way around this is to temporarily ally the first opponent, then mass the second. Your units will ignore the first base, gather back into a mass and head where the action is. Once your units are out of range from the first base, you can unally the first opponent.

Temporary allying is also useful in the midfield. In large-volume air scrimmages, units tend to become scattered in the flurry, making them less effective because their attack is less concentrated. One thing important to remember while temporarily allying is to mass to the desired location before you ally, therefore cutting back on time and losses. Temporarily allying, remassing and unallying allows you to restage the attack with a more concentrated force. Use wisely however, because while allied the enemy will continue to attack and destroy a portion of your army.