Reward Drafting, Economy, and Platform Planning

You know the scene: the reinforcement screen hands you a glorious heavy-gun blueprint, the next revealed threat flies, and your only spare building space looks like a bent cracker. Tower Dominion loves this joke. Draft for the battlefield you have, not the perfect build hiding three rewards from now. Read the revealed threat icons, inspect your firing arcs, and find a real construction spot before choosing anything.

Supply pays for most buildings and upgrades. Recon rerolls zones during expansion and also pays for certain buildings or upgrades. Tech is a rare resource used for powerful building upgrades. A blueprint adds a limited building to your inventory. A doctrine is a run modifier; doctrines can improve resources, units, buildings, costs, efficiency, or deliveries. A Platform is a specific placeable structure that raises its covered ground by one height level and can hold another building. Regular and irregular Platform shapes make footprint planning part of the draft.

Use This Draft Order

Before taking a reward, make three checks: read the revealed threats, trace the route from each entry point to the Headquarters (HQ), and test where your best available blueprint can fit. Rank the run's needs like this:

Rank	Need	Question to Ask	Reward Bias
1	Immediate threat coverage	Can the current defense hit flyers, detect camouflaged foes, and break the next shields fast enough?	Take the missing counter blueprint, or the resource that completes a counter upgrade.
2	Economy	Can you afford the answer without leaving the rest of the kill zone half built?	Take Supply, useful income, or a doctrine that improves resources you already use.
3	Firing coverage	Do your strongest towers cover the busy route, or only wave politely as aliens pass?	Take affordable damage, a useful upgrade resource, or slowing and support that keep targets under fire.
4	Terrain control	Could the next zone shorten the lane, open another approach, or leave a large blueprint homeless?	Take Recon or Platform Delivery when it protects the route and building plan.
5	Long-term synergy	Does this reward improve at least two pieces already working?	Take the matching doctrine or specialist. Skip dream-combo bait with no current partner.

This is a priority list, not a scripted build. Terrain, rewards, commanders, and some starting blueprints vary. If the next danger is already covered, economy can move to the top. If a lethal trait is coming, let the clever doctrine wait while you buy the boring answer that keeps the HQ standing.

When to Take Each Reward

Take Supply when it completes a needed building or upgrade, when weak income has stalled the defense, or when recent leaks show that your guns are underfunded. Do not spend it just because a space is empty.
Take Recon when the next zone could damage your route plan, when another reroll is worth more than the offered terrain, or when a Recon-cost building or upgrade solves a current problem. Set a reroll limit before clicking; terrain can smell desperation.
Take Tech when a building you already own has a Tech upgrade that answers a known threat or anchors your main package. Rarity alone is not a reason. Tech sitting unused does less work than Supply fixing the next wave.
Take a blueprint when it fills a missing role, strengthens the busiest route, or fits a space you can point to now. You can keep it unbuilt while waiting for a better placement.
Take a doctrine when its effect helps immediately or strengthens several buildings, units, rerolls, or resource choices already in the run. A building doctrine tied to a tower you merely hope to find is a wager, not a plan.

Build Packages That Survive Bad Drafts

Package	Battlefield Shape	Draft Priorities	Fallback
Headquarters defense	Compact coverage around the final turn and HQ approach.	Mirador support, close defense, HQ bonuses, repairs, and air coverage near the base.	Place a reliable general-damage tower where it covers both the final turn and the HQ. Upgrade that overlap instead of scattering more towers.
Artillery lane	A long shared route with a bend or slow point before the main firing stretch.	Warwolf Position, Slovek Howitzer, or mortar support; slowing effects; and upgrades for the gun already covering the lane.	If the heavy blueprint never appears, layer compact area damage along the same route. Keep targets inside overlapping arcs for longer.
Infantry support	Troops meet enemies near a bend while ranged towers fire into the pileup.	Faction or commander troop production, infantry buffs, replacement income, and ranged support behind the contact point.	Treat troops as extra firing time, not the whole damage plan. Add a tower watching both the fight and the path beyond it.
Air coverage	Overlapping arcs across likely flight paths and the HQ approach.	Puma Positions, air-capable upgrades on existing defenses, and enough Supply to finish the answer before the revealed air threat.	Upgrade air-capable buildings already placed, then overlap two arcs near the HQ. Use Air Command when its bomber line and Detection also solve a ground or camouflage problem.
Flexible general damage	One shared kill zone with a second layer near the HQ.	Affordable Miradors, Sturdy Bunkers, Warwolf Positions, broad damage doctrines, and separate answers for air and camouflage.	Choose the best current counter, then improve existing coverage. This package works through useful pieces, not a complete matching set.

The packages can mix. An artillery lane still needs air cover. An infantry build still wants a tower that can finish anything walking out of the scrum. The fun is turning awkward ground into a machine where pathing, troops, and guns all make the same alien traffic jam worse.

Reserve Platforms Before You Need Them

Do not count open squares one at a time. Large or uneven buildings need their whole footprint free. A tiny tower placed in the middle of a broad buildable area can split it into two useless scraps. Select the largest blueprint in your inventory and use its placement preview to test the footprint before building nearby.

ENTRY → first bend [slow or troop contact]
                 ↓
        shared firing lane
 [high gun pad] [small support strip]
                 ↓
          final turn → HQ
                 [compact emergency pad]

Height can extend practical firing coverage, and some upgrades or doctrines add their own high-ground bonuses. Compare the placement preview and upgrade text before spending a raised position. If the same tower covers the useful route from lower ground, save the peak for another gun. Watch for exceptions: the Medium Mortar Position can only be built at height 0, so it needs a clear ground-level footprint rather than a prized high Platform.

Reserve one connected area for the largest useful blueprint in hand.
Keep one compact space near the HQ for emergency air coverage, Detection, or leak control.
Place adjacency-based support only after checking that it will not break a larger footprint.
Use awkward edge scraps for small support pieces whose preview gains little from a better spot.
Do not chase a remote neutral building unless its benefit repays the space and route trouble.
Leave a blueprint unbuilt when it adds no new coverage, counter, support effect, or useful upgrade path.

Pivot and Salvage Rules

If the wanted tower or counter does not appear: use the nearest function already available. Upgrade an air-capable tower instead of waiting for perfect anti-air. Add Detection to an existing Mirador when that branch is available. Against shields, improve a shield-breaking weapon or stack enough general damage at the main choke. Two imperfect layers that overlap beat one lonely specialist.

If a Platform does not appear: keep the large blueprint in reserve. Use later terrain choices to seek connected buildable space, take Platform Delivery if offered, or place a smaller counter on the ground you have. Do not force a heavy building into a spot where much of its firing arc watches empty scenery.

If construction space is blocked: stop filling gaps. Mark the largest remaining connected area and move small support pieces toward the edges. If no large footprint remains, pivot from footprint-heavy artillery to compact towers, upgrades, troops, or HQ support.

If income is weak: freeze expansion for one decision cycle. Take Supply or dependable income, upgrade the tower doing the most work, and ignore luxury doctrines. A smaller kill zone with paid-up guns is safer than a grand base full of unfinished ideas.

If Recon rerolls have eaten the budget: set a hard stop and accept the least harmful terrain offer. Save the remaining Recon for a useful building, upgrade, or later reroll. A slightly ugly lane can still become lethal; a perfect imaginary lane cannot shoot anything.

If a synergy remains incomplete: count what the build does now, not what its final form might do. Keep pieces that provide damage, slowing, Detection, economy, or HQ support on their own. Stop drafting narrow bonuses for the missing half and pivot toward broad damage plus the next revealed counter.

The best reward is often the one that leaves options open. Preserve Supply when the next need is unclear, Recon when the route is already safe, Tech until a meaningful upgrade is visible, and open building space until a blueprint earns it. Tower Dominion will not always hand over the planned combo. It will usually hand over enough parts to build something wonderfully mean anyway.

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