It's been a month since the Early Preview launched. Though the game is not officially launched yet and not many players are invited, some very interesting happenings took place. At first, there were 12x12 rooms, while now we have more than 400 – more than enough to hang out and leverage one's GCL. Well, let's see where the main forces are concentrated, how things have changed, and which interesting battles took place.
A screenshot of the map as a memento:
And the current Expansion Rank top positions:
In the center (W2S1), AzuraStar has entrenched with the maximum Controller Level and maximum hits of his barrage rampart, his GCL is 12. There is an additional base in the South West (W4S5) and a roadblock on the intersection (W5S2) cutting the way to a territory of 25 game rooms in size (W2N2-W4S7) from the main aggressor - nugarin.
Nugarin has conquered quite a lot of new players, wiping out their rooms with his distant raids almost across all the West. His densely cooperating chain of 6 rooms (W11S6-W9S7) of primarily 6th level is threateningly amassing forces ready to move out and challenge his opponents at any time. The current GCL is 10.
Here are some screenshots of the losers:
Initially nugarin emerged on the edge of the map far from his current location (E6N3).
There were last season leaders nearby, Myzaree (E6N1) and ir0x539 (E4N2). Alas, they didn't take much care of their defense, which finally had grievous results. 
After some short battles, they scattered. Myzaree is now in the North West (W7N4) and doesn't expand from his only room despite his GCL 10. ir0x539 missed in action.
That is, in the middle East, Rumatah is the only strong player that remained. At the moment, his chain consisting of 7 adjacent rooms (E10N2-E10S2) with high levels (half of 7, half of 6) and border ramparts with several million hits look very impressive. There is no active warfare here, except a minor challenge for a fledging player DarkTrooper7 (more about him below).
Rumatah went to this region (and respawned and changed his badge as well), while his first home was E1S7 (far to the South East).
The relocation was forced by several waves of attacks by tscmoo. He was doing nice in the first days of the Early Preview: he ignored upgrading his controller and focused on cleansing the South with his distant raids.
His only hurdle at that time was players with temporary walls who also blocked paths in the labyrinth. Even those who programmed defensive logic were not prepared to withstand against such massive advances.
Soon afterwards, some changes were made in the spawning mechanism, and tscmoo could not revive since that time. He occupied W3S5 and calmed down. However, who can know his designs for sure? He can emerge at any spot and any time and resume his endeavours.
In the South East, we witnessed aggressive scheming of DarkTrooper7 who had occupied vast territories. Currently, he leverages his GCL 8 to the full. He is likely to resume attacks after reaching level 9 and higher.
Many players have shown signs of the «coma» effect when all creeps die out. Usually in such cases, the mastermind soon arrives and helps his AI to resurge. However, ZorzZ has been remaining in coma for several days, for example. Nugarin tried to wake him up, but with no results.
You should take special care of your logic – don't make critical changes before you go to bed lest you become an easy prey for your opponents:
You should also think of automatic regeneration after balance shifts. To regain a «spark» (apart from manual Reinforcement) you should have 200 extra points of energy for a creep with [WORK,CARRY,MOVE] body parts. Such a logic may also work well for automatic capturing of new rooms.
Meanwhile, even in the worst case scenario when all your spawns are gone, actually it's just a start of a new colony with even better immunity. Don't forget that your GCL is not subject to reset, and you can always develop a competitive 4-5 room footprint in mere 2-3 days.
The example of this is hesto2 who resurged twice. Or, for instance, chris. They are again brand new and shining after just several days.
Thanks to all the Early Preview participants! We'll continue to watch the progress, while your participation helps us refine our game balance and mechanics making the game more interesting to all the players, both newcomers and veterans.
If you took part in an interesting battle, please tell us about that in comments. Even better if you keep some screenshots for the next review.