War of Dots: CRUSHING my opponents with FACTS and LOGIC

War of Dots is a free minimal RTS on Steam.The gameplay is simple enough to be described in its entirety in a blogpost, but I'm too lazy to do so, so I'll only consider what I need for my analysis. This article will describe the main mechanics identified to this day, and use maths to elaborate an effective strategy (with a brief discussion of real-game application).A winning manoeuver for red during a War of Dots match Introduction You control dots, which fight when in contact with enemy dots. Your goal is to capture cities (which provide funds to buy dots) and kill enemy dots. There is a mild snowball effect such that the game is usually decided by the time the first city (out of typically 5) switches sides, or an army controls ~20% more troops than the other.The main concepts to master to become an excellent War of Dots player are:Micro:Attack surface (taking micro-engagements with more units in the fight than the enemy, dealing more damage than you receive)Defence (having units fight without moving, for a mild bonus at the very beginning of the game)Terrain (positioning your units on favorable terrain, in the rare cases where it matters)Meso:Cycling (pulling injured units out of the fight, sending fresh troops in)Encirclement (cutting off enemy units from any city's zone of influence, which deals extreme damage to them over time)City-sniping (tactical actions to capture an enemy city)Tactic techs (various tricks to gain a mild advantage in specific situations, such as regen-blocking or tail engulfment)Macro:Concentration of force (forcing fights where you have more units than the enemy to leverage a better attack surface)Recruitment (choosing how to exchange funds for units, and tricks to generate more funds)The economy and combat are very slow, leaving ample time to think, such that by far the two most important mechanics are cycling (how to weave troops in and out of combat) and encirclement (which quickly destroys large amounts of enemy troops). It is enough to