Here are my key strategies:
- You are only designing your cannon layout for the very last piece of cake, #8. 1-7 are immaterial. So design your cannons to kill that one ant that is going from the cake to the hole. Infact, your most efficient game play is when there is only one piece left. Since the cake is regenerative, you want as little of it out there as possible. When an ant picks up the cake, I wear him down to the point where I know I can kill him if he makes a run to the hole, then I target other ants.
- Ice cannons are key. Level II slows down the ants by a factor of 4, which means all your other cannons are effectively 4 times better.
-Quick Cannons and Sniper Cannons are the best bang for your buck. Look at the asterisks on the high levels...those are synergistic benefits that mean when you upgrade one cannon, they all upgrade. They are better on the QC, so I use those exclusively.
-Target ants actively. My priorities are 1) any cake ant running for the hole 2) any ant that isnt frozen yet 3) any ant thats ready to die.
I think combining with ice cannons and quick cannons with constant targeting, most people will be able to get up pretty high.