Biomass is a wonderful thing! Jonathan designed it to be a renewable resource. The rules for harvesting and return of biomass from dead titans combine to form the biomass cycle.
Biomass growth. You have to understand how biomass grows before you can farm biomass. The maximum number of biomass spores on one hex is seven. A 'full' hex will then influence neighboring hexes to grow similar color biomass. A hex with seven biomass can also cause new growth of the same color onto a neighbor hex with one or two biomass of a different color. Each turn new biomass will also randomly appear sometimes. That means your solid field of blue biomass could suddenly have a purple spore in the middle. 'Full' hexes will influence hexes with two or more biomass to grow before influencing a bare hex to grow new biomass. The more 'full' hexes that surround a hex with less growth, the faster this hex will grow new biomass.
Biomass conservation. To preserve biomass, you should try to always eat from a 'full' hex. The perfect conservation point is a 'full' hex that is surrounded by 'full' hexes. A breeder that eats from a perfect conservation point (with no other breeders eating from the surrounding hexes) can continue to eat with no apparent loss of biomass for a long period of time.
When to farm.
Most of the time there is plenty of biomass about and you can just eat what's there. There will be times when your enemy has you cornered in a location with very little biomass, or perhaps you are pushing the enemy back and he has eaten the land bare, or you are trapped in an area with the wrong color biomass. These are times when you may need to farm. There are three techniques to farming; Converting biomass, Transporting biomass, and Generating biomass.
Converting biomass. Use this method if you are trapped in an area with the wrong color biomass. The first step is to destruct a titan of the desired color. This will convert any existing biomass in that hex into the desired color. You can now eat this biomass and use those spores to generate size three titans on the surrounding hexes, detruct those, and so on untill you have a field of the desired color of biomass.
Transporting biomass. If you eat green or orange biomass you have to use this method to replenish the biomass in an area. Park a breeder in a perfect conservation point and spawn a size 3 titan every turn. Run this titan to the baren land and then destruct it to place the biomass where you need it. Build your center hex up to seven biomass, then surround that hex with at least two biomass in every hex. Let the newly transported biomass grow.
Generating biomass. If you eat purple or blue biomass, you fill two or three spawning chambers per spore eaten. Doing the math, after the first spore is eaten (and assuming: 1. you don't empty that first chamber, 2. you have the appropriate total number of chambers), you can spawn size 3 titans and for every spore eaten, regenerate (by destructing) two or three spores for every spore eaten. That means you can start with an area that has only two spores surrounded by many many empty hexes and end up with a solid field of purple or blue.
Returning biomass: One forth is returned, so doing the math the best ways to return biomass are:
Don't use larger than a size 28 titan. When destructed a size 28 titan returns 7 spores - the maximum number of spores for one hex. Also, if you are eating purple or blue biomass don't spawn a size three titan if your breeder is full and on top of biomass. You'll use one chamber to spawn the titan, then eat one spore and only fill one chamber.
Other interesting Biomass facts
Every time you destruct a titan or it is killed by incomming fire, one fourth of the mass of the titan is returned to the land as biomass. What about vented biomass? When a breeder is shot and breeding chambers are damaged there is a chance that some of the biomass will be vented. This vented biomass is essentially destroyed as it does not return to the land. Also, any full breeding chambers in a destroyed titan will be destroyed. They do not add to the biomass that is returned to the land.
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