Empires of the Undergrowth is a challenging RTS game where only the most ferocious and resourceful ant colony will survive. In the fire ant update, two new levels arrived with the swarming fire ants, Cold Blood and A Bridge Too Far. In A Bridge Too Far, your invicta colony must grow to very large numbers to form a pontoon big enough to survive the rising floods. With lower levels and ant colonies getting washed away, will you survive and float away, or become foamy flotsam?
How to Beat A Bridge Too Far
Your goals
Simply put, you must grow your colony to a certain population size, with workers being being valued less than soldiers. You must reach the population goal before the waters rise up too far and flood your nest.
To do this, you must not upgrade your units. Any food must be spent reserved to feed your growing colony, and must be spent on new brood tiles for more ants. Food is somewhat limited and will vanish as the waters rise up, so food uselessly spent on upgrades will come back to haunt you.
Strategies for maintaining a large colony
Maintaining a large colony is more difficult than simply placing brood tiles down. When your ants get in fights with the amphibians and stronger critters that get washed up on the island as the game progresses, your ants will start to dwindle.
Each invicta soldier costs 4 food to hatch, which may not seem a lot, but when a trail of 50 ants gets devoured by a toad, or when the great blue skimmer dragonfly swoops down for a visit, you’ll need a lot of food to maintain the fight.
Having a large amount of food in the reserves will pay off big time, or you will soon find yourself without any ants to defend your queen. A recommended amount to keep a loft for larger colonies would be about 400 food.
Collecting food
As the water rises, food stores on the lower levels will get swept away. Early game, try to reach the far out pockets of food, and slowly reign in your operations as food dwindles and as the water rises. Not every food source will be available until the water levels rise, enabling your ants to make bridges and reach them.
Try to seperate your forces into smaller groups to reach different food sources simultaneously, as the large pine cones will only allow 12 ants to feed from it at any one time, and you do not want idle ants during this mission.
Try to keep your lines bolstered, however, as creatures will try to prey on your ants, and you don’t have the time nor resources to be too careful.
When traversing the winding roads of the island, you will want to keep a close eye on your ant trails and turn gathering off for the commute to ensure none of your ants fall victim to carnivorous plants.
Your nest also contains a lot of food hidden away in pockets. try to uncover them either very early game or during the night when the dangerous toads and newts come out to hunt.
Also, aphids will be stranded around the map. It would be in your colony’s best interests to secure them as soon as possible and is safe, a constantly refreshing food source may tip your balance in favour of survival and may provide the final bunch of ants you need for victory.
Late game in A Bridge Too Far
The neighboring colony
Across the island is an unassuming colony of black ants. Their fate is to become fish food. When the waters rise enough to allow you to bridge over, do so quickly and carefully. Make sure you have enough food to hatch your whole colony again if needed.
By annihilating these ants, you will have access to a huge food source. It is heavily recommended to wipe them out.
The mighty blue skimmer dragonfly
The great blue skimmer dragonfly will be hovering around the island, do not worry about it. It will stay suspended and not pose a threat to your ants until it finally decides to swoop down near your nest. You must immediately fight it and take it down. If you don’t have adequate numbers to take it down, then it would be unlikely that you would have been able to win at all.
The only strategy for taking the beast down is to enable your ants to mount creatures and swarm it. The dragonfly may attempt to fly away and rest when at low health. You must pursue it and destroy it. It will reward you with a significant injection of food, making up for losses and some, and it will eradicate you of the existential threat.
Amphibian ensemble
Near the end of the game, the amphibians will start to close in on your colony. To actually win the game, all of your colony must be on the surface and on the mound to securely pontoon away when the waters arrive. A mass of amphibians will be waiting for you. Your final struggle will be with them, a final test before your survival. In anticipation of this, horde food and build no more than you need to hit the right population. Sell excess food tile storage and any excess workers if you are in a pinch.
After you tussle, you will win. Congratulations!
