Alpha - Cavemaniac - leapfrog - opening moves?

[Jallun]

Took me a few tries at that opening.

[Tjgalon]

That how i always start too, lol.

[Despwing]

As my strategy was a little different, that is what I did until the first spore attac:

1 - Grab a "Mass"-artifact (using the 3rd command node which I moved afterwards)
2 - Start at the top left corner
3 - Fire the artifact on the emitter to the south in order to secure that line by getting a creeper pond which is easy to mortar
4 - Build 4 siphons (I didn't know before that they can overlap each other ...  ::)), 4 cannons, mortar, sprayer and ore mine
5 - Nullify the top left spore tower together with the runner nest to the right
6 - Build a reactor into the left PZ and put a digitalis cannon in the 2nd PZ
7 - Build 10 Beams
--- Spore attac ---
8 - Build Forge and siphon aether (spent it on 4 lvls energy and 1 lvl fire rate)

[Wondernuts]

I tried the lower right 8 times or so because I liked the idea of taking on the end of the digitalis ribbon, but I just couldn't get going enough before the spores started raining down. Upper left worked better for me and is how I won the map. You have more time to siphon before the creep encroaches, which was critical for getting reactors online. Nice tip from Mefi on the value of walls for the early game.

Attached are screens of my setup 2 mins in and 5 mins in.