UEF bomber scare on Theta Passage
Woo! I barely came through on this one. For those of you not wanting to see a match similar to the last one, I can tell you that this is most certainly shorter but is also of a much higher caliber (skill wise). Though I lacked adaptation I still managed to pull through and gain a victory. I had thought about changing my strategy, but my economy and military positions were heading in the right direction and I was cornering him for the kill.
The game began as most games do, rapid expansion countered by light resistance. I felt pretty comfy from the start knowing that my radars were clear. The only area I had yet to cover with an intelligence web was his small corner of map . His score leaped a bit but eventually my forward base was up and running at full speed. There was a tech one war for a little while. I sent my units in formation either straight towards his base or up and around to the north. I don’t know much about his radar, but if he had placed even a few point defenses I would have been more deterred. I experienced a little bump when I upgraded my first mex. I’m not sure if upgrading the mex was needed, but I felt that with my venture into the second tier it was better to be prepared. The area of guessing and preparing for the next tier of economy is something I am still somewhat weak on. I usually watch my economy to see when I have +9 influx of mass or a substantial amount in store, not really planning it by the factory or minute.
So the first few skirmishes continue. I am successful, by using formation move, in pushing into his base. I am not sure what damage I have done, but I know a strike vector now. My tier two engineers come as I am preparing a defensive line outside of the factory. I never really get far with tier two, other than to save my commander from the bomber rush, so this comes of little use to me. The end game arrives when my forces approach from the north and my opponent sends out his counter attack. What was different, and dangerous, about this counter was of its makeup. He had made a squad of six to eight bombers and directed them straight at my commander. I quickly sent the commander to run about in open space, my factories to produce AA, and my engineers to build the flak gun. I was quite close to dying and if it had not been for UEF’s lacking air strength I likely would have been toast.
Again this is not the perfect game. I wanted to give UEF a shot. They were my original pick for a faction because of its strong ties to brotherhood and restoring order. I think I will continue to play them a bit, perhaps spending a little more time preparing for the air attack. Building a few flak cannons near any key elements or commander before I begin artillery/other development.
Well that’s it! Comments, suggestions? Flaws? Anything you’d like to see in a next replay? These replays are significant to me, but if I should try and use a certain tactic I can do that. Should I wait for a certain benchmark? Gain a rank of under 1,000 before I speak again? What do you all think?
Download the replay of this match (v3223).
May 17th, 2007 at 4:26 pm
Some feedback on your performance:
1. You need to tech up faster. You were still using T2 ground units at 15 minutes, by which time you should have already been using siege bots. At least in v3223, you shouldn’t really be using T2 units (except engineers) at all; it’s all about the siege bots.
2. You need to get an air factory earlier on and have it spam interceptors. You almost lost the game to a T1 bomber rush at 15 minutes because you didn’t have any anti-air at all. You could easily have lost at this juncture.
3. Your enemy’s army seemed to consist primarily of lobos, yet you kept your forces stationary while engaging him, thus getting torn up by the artillery shells. You should have charged through his artillery with your tanks, decimating them while taking no losses on your own.
May 17th, 2007 at 7:08 pm
One thing that definitely struck me about this replay was that you didn’t build a hydrocarbon power plant at all during the game. Maybe this is just me, but among my first engineers out, I have one of them go for that hydrocarbon plant asap because it helps me get my economy chugging. You had power problems at different points during the skirmish that could have been avoided had you built more power and utilized that hydrocarbon plant. Either way, you had good scouting on most of the map except for his base. Building an air factory could have helped this a lot, sending an air scout over every once in a while to see what he’s up to (let’s face it, you were pretty much blind sided by that bomber rush.) That aside, congratulations on your victory.
May 17th, 2007 at 7:15 pm
I went into the game thinking “alright, UEF is pretty horrible when it comes to tier one interceptors and AA so I should keep the pressure up on the ground war. I had found a few air factories, one of which I saw bombers being queued. I still have much room for improvement. I just thought this was an interesting display because it shows the need for air, and the UEF weakness in this department.
May 17th, 2007 at 7:37 pm
UEF interceptors arnt thaaat bad, against bombers, Their static AA is crap though….
May 17th, 2007 at 11:48 pm
There were several points in that game where I couldn’t believe both commanders didn’t bite it. He almost lobo’d you to death pretty early, then it looked like you had plenty of units to storm him, but you held back. Then you got lucky with the bombers, but by that time you had the map in your pocket. You definitely could and should have upgraded a mass extractor much earlier than you did (actually, I can’t remember if you ever did upgrade one). It was an interesting replay to watch though, as Theta’s my favorite small map.