Tower defence placement mistakes I stopped making

Most tower defence losses aren't about weak towers, they're about where you put them. For years I clustered everything at the exit, thinking a wall of damage would solve it. It doesn't. By then the fast units are already halfway through.

The better habit is spreading damage along the path so enemies take hits over time. Slow towers work best early on a route, where they stretch the kill window for everything behind. Save your burst damage for chokepoints where enemies bunch up.

Another thing: don't over-upgrade a single tower before you've covered gaps. Two mid-level towers usually beat one maxed one, because coverage matters more than raw numbers in most maps.

Once these clicked for me, games like Iron Vale Defenders stopped feeling random and started feeling readable. Placement is the real skill here, not spending.