Guest Tips:
Do you sometimes feel in need of metal, but
can't seem to find the time to go about reclaiming the rocks lying scattered
about there in the middle of King Of The Hill? Try picking a construction unit
and setting it on patrol through all the rocks. You can even use the minimap:
"M" move construction unit to starting point, SHIFT-P at end of patrol route.
On maps with less dense gatherings of reclaimable rocks than the
abovementioned one, try picking a construction aircraft and go crazy
SHIFT-P'ing all over the map. Although the unit itself is less efficient than
if you gave it a specific rock-to-rock route, this should save you above 90%
realtime in issuing the commands, thereby giving you more time for things like
spelling out your name in Dragon Teeth in your own personalized bitmap-font.
With a little practice, bombers can
increase in effectiveness manyfold. The trick is that bombers have ZERO reload
rate - if you time it well enough, you can release bombs from your bomber in a
steady ongoing stream almost without pause. It is possible in this way to cut
a straight line all the way through a base. Or you can just target a row of
metal mines, like f.ex. on Lava & Two Hills, islands on Gods Of War, or Coast
To Coast (well, any map really). Your bomber should be able to take out no
less than four mines in one raid diagonally across your opponents' base,
providing it isn't shot down before it completes it's run, ofcourse.
How? Just "A" attack the spot where you want it to bomb. As soon as
you hear the sound of the bombs being released, you are free to choose your
next target. It takes little practice to really optimize the tactic, but it's
easy enough once you get the hang of it. A cheap countemeasure that comes in
handy on the abovementioned maps is placing Defenders/Pulverizers right in
front of the metal extractors.
The time it takes to reclaim a
building depends on two things: the speed at which you are reclaiming (like
build speed, there is the oppotsite: reclaim speed), and the health of the
strusture or unit you wish to reclaim.
So besides using your cmdr to reclaim something rather than a
construction aircraft, there is one more thing you can do to speed up the
process: damage the building to within a sliver to destroying it, so that the
reclaiming business becomes only a matter of seconds.
Here's a quick example:
You play on the map Coast To Coast. You want to build a Big Bertha asap. The road to the quickest Big Bertha is a strongly debated subject, but one of the only certain things about it is that at some point should reclaim your adv. kbot/veh/air lab/plant to put the 2400 metal or so into the Big Bertha instead of having to wait approximately 4 minutes longer in order to earn the metal by normal means to get it online and pumping. Use your defensive units/structures (defenders/pulverisers should do nicely here) to pummel on the building before you reclaim it, therby shaving off additional precious seconds in your mission towards your main goal.
A very small, yet still occasionally
useful trick, is to exploit a weapons' blast and/or random radius to take out
otherwise unreachable targets. Let's say you've spotted a juicy target just
out side your Big Bertha's range. Try doing an "A" attack as close to the
target as possible. The randomness of the Bertha's range will result in a shot
occasionally travelling far enough to strike the target.
Another alike trick is to exploit the blast radius of a unit's
weapon. Many types of weapons have a blast radius, like f.ex. CORE's Dominator
kbot and both sides' Plasma Cannons.
When your huge Samson/Slasher army
patrolling the highways on Painted Desert gets attacked by something out of
their LoS, there is a quicker way of retaliating than trying to get a visual
on the enemy units: hit "G" for guard with your samson group selected and
guard the unit being attacked. Your group will fire at the enemy unit without
having to obtain contact via LoS or radar first.
This way is far more effective than setting the group to rush
forward into more direct fire in order to obtain visual contact so they start
fireing by themselves. Then again, it requires far more realtime in guiding
the battle, leaving you less time for resource management and base
decorations. The trick of guarding the unit recieving fire from something out
of LoS and radar can be applied in many situations, ofcourse, with many
different units. You could f.eks. use a sub and guard the skeeters getting hit
by shells from an enforcer to make sure the sub attacks the enforcer from max
range without even having to get into visual or radar contact with it.
When you play a large map such as Painted
Desert, harassing your opponent in the beginning can be well worth it. One way
to take out a series of metal extractors the opponent might just have placed
in, around, and away from his base, is to pick just one unit and shift-"M" it
to each metal mine you can see. With +shootall activated it will shoot the
metal extractor until it is dead, and move on to the next spot in it's
move-queue. If there is no mine built on the spot, it will ofcourse move on to
the next predesignated location immediately. Another way of doing this is
setting a unit to circle the area around a mine a few times before moving on..
this just takes more time for both you and the unit, esp. if there turns out
to be no extractor built on the mine.
Obviously the point is that you only have to issue the commands
once, and not follow the unit while it's on it's way, thereby saving you
precious amounts of the all-important resource called Real Time.
If for nothing else but to avoid your units
from clogging up your own base and vehicle plants etc, it is almost always
worthwhile to set your vehicle plant (or whatever) to "M" move the units away
and even set them to patrol somewhere useful. (Select plant, "M" move to
starting point, shift-"P" patrol thru waypoints to end of route).
The most common use of this is to set a gathering point somewhere
where you can later go and select them for use as a fresh new group, but
through utilization of the ctrl-Z command or the new grouping options in 3.0
where one can set the production facilities themselves to automatically assign
new units to predesignated group-#'s, one wastes little by immediately setting
them to a patrol route either in an area you wish to control, protecting your
own base or acting as a part of a seige on your opponent's base.
Make sure you are familiar with every option you have for issuing commands in the game. Everything and anything may well come in handy some time - if not now, then maybe when you get more experienced. A few examples of commands you might not be aware of could be:
Try to make sure your aircraft do anything
but just land on the ground after they are built. They do no good there but
get in the way, and you might get them damaged or even lose them all in a
surprise ground rush, bombing raid, sudden incoming Bertha shells, nukes etc
etc.
With construction aircraft this could be setting the airplant to
patrol the units it produces over itself, so that each construction aircraft
automatically starts helping out the aircraft plant with it's next unit. With
fighters it might be by setting a patrol route for them right off the bat.
With bombers it might be placing them in a hovering position in the corner for
later use ("M" move to spot, shift-"P" on same spot).
When one of your production plants is
getting attacked, and the unit you have ordered it to produce doesn't stand a
chance of completing it's construction, cancel it to get the metal you have
already put into it back at a 100% rate.
This is obviusly more important the more expensive and close to
completion the unit is. Subs are some of the most important units to make sure
to cancel when it looks as if they wont make it off the assembly line, with
their approx. 1100 metal and fast build time. Also, maybe you should give your
budding Krogoth a little rational consideration when you spot those 80
advanced bombers make a nice-looking bow formation and head right for the your
Krogoth Gantry.
When you order a construction unit out into
the field to build defensive fortifications, radars and metal extractors, one
way of ensuring you don't forget them out there is by issuing them an order to
return and help out in your base upon completion. This is a good habit to get
into, and will ensure you don't - ever - have contruction units just standing
around on the battle field doing nothing.
There are endless ways of Looping. Setting them to guard a plant or
another construction unit when they are done is the safest way to make sure
they aren't forgotten. Another way might be to build a radar as the last
structure. When you notice the sound of it coming online you know a
construction unit is finished - this is maybe not quite as foolproof though
(you being the fool).
Looping your construction units back to guarding a plant or other
construction unit (cmdr, f.ex.) works far best with construction aircraft, and
not so well with kbots. The size of the map and the flow of the battle is also
quite relevent, ofcourse. If you're pounding away at your opponents' base on
the other side of Painted Desert, bringing your construction vehicles back
from the middle of the map rapidly loses it's relevance.
Units aren't alone in benifitting from
being assigned group numbers. Having your defenders, Bertha, Nuke silo,
Cloakable Fusion and Metal Makers etc on a number also comes in handy.
New in 3.0 is the ability to assign a group-# to f.ex. vehicle plant
(or any construction structure). All units produced by the structure will
automatically be assigned that group number. There are several useful uses for
this new option, but I'll let you figure them out by yourself..
A way to disable an your opponents' Krogoth
Gantry with minimal resources is to simply park a unit in the driveway, and
let it die there. You'll notice your cursor goes into Attack mode when you
hold it over your opponents' Gantry with your unit selected? Just hit "M" for
Move, and you'll be able to drive/walk your unit right in there and clog up
the exit. The Gantry wont be able to release any Krogoths before the mess it
cleaned out of the way.
Ofcourse, this goes for Vehicle, Kbot and Hovercraft production
facilities too. And no, it's not "cheap" or "cheating" - it's effective. Learn
it, use it, gnug it.
Originally invented and mercilessly
implemented by a Swede called SJ, an effective Jeffy-bombing will leave your
jaw down by the floor the first time you experience it. The idea is simple,
the result devestating.
Build bombers, preferably adv. ones. Build a scout vehicle, like
f.eks. the Jeffy (ARM) or the Weasel (CORE). Set a group of bombers to Guard
your Jeffy/Weasel. Scout your enemy's base with stuff. Shift-"A" Attack a
target in your opponents' base with enough bombers to take it out. Select a
new group and repeat ad nauseum, picking a new target with a new set of
bombers every time you scout.
When you're ready, selfdestruct (CTRL-D) your Jeffy. The bombers
will stop guarding it (since it's dead), and move on to executing the next
order in their Order Queue: each squad will set forth to bomb it's
pre-designated target in the opponents' base, thereby maximizing the blow on
the base in one single fly-over, while minimizing the effect of his or her
anti-air measures.
Yes, it's another tip to do with bombing.
Guess there's a lot to know about it. As usual, I'll be brief:
Select a squad of adv. bombers, "G" guard one of your units like in
yesterday's tip. Use Peepers/Finks to scout your opponent. When you spot his
cmdr, shift-"A" Attack him with your bombers. Wait a bit, about enough time
for your opponent to know that you weren't intending to bomb his cmdr - right
away, at least. When you think he's feeling relaxed again, maybe distract him
with a small raid or something, just enough so he pays attention to the
skirmish. Then self-"D" Destruct the unit your bombers were guarding. They'll
proceed to bomb your opponents' cmdr, even if he's moved since you targetted
him.
I've seen this work on Coast To Coast in a game once: one side had
been shelled by a Bertha for a while, but managed to keep building adv.
bombers and set them to Guard a metalmaker in the corner. When he had no
structures left he raided his opponents with a few Skeeters and then released
his bombers on his opponnent's cmdr by self-"D" the Metal Maker they had been
set to guard. His opponent, who had wandered up to hide in the corner after he
had been spotted guarding an airplant on the middle of the coast about two
minutes earlier, must have been surprised to see the bombers come thundering
in from above, half of them from outside the screen even, and take his cmdr
out in one pass-over. And all one heard from the guy pulling off this upset
victory was a tentatively phrased "gg".
When using your cmdr's Disintigrator
Gun to take out enemy units, be sure to use it as effectively as possible.
Instead of aiming at the unit itself, try aiming just in front of your feet in
a direction towards the unit. There are three main reasons for this: One more thing: for maximum fireing rate
shift-"D"-click in the directions you want to shoot. Watch that ctrl button as
you do this though (btw, if you're in the PGL finals or something just try to
remember that winning isn't everything :).
Using the D-Gun as effectively as
possible means more than mentioned in the last tip. Extreme uses might
include:
A Gnug only needs to spot his opponent's
cmdr once to be able to locate him later on without much trouble. Have a
Defender/Pulverizer on a group number. When you spot your oppoent's cmdr,
quickly target him with your Defender. From now on, at least until the
Defender gets destroyed, you'll be able to pinpoint your cmdr's whereabouts at
any time by noticing which way your Defender is pointing.
If you would like to have a better idea as to his location than just
the direction, try targetting him with Defenders from two different locations
on the map, then follow their Line Of Sight - his cmdr will be where their LoS
appers to cross each other.
Yesterday's tip has more possibilities to
it than the one mentioned. You can track everything from Weasels to Krogoths
in the same manner, or use a torpedo launcher to track something underwater.
Having that Defender on a group number when you scout your
opponent's base can also come in handy in other circumstances. When you spot
the juicy buildings you can target them with the Defender - this even works
great for multiple targets. Later on, when you your bombers or nukes are
ready, simply hold shift down with the Defender selected, and the targets will
show up as small red crosses on the screen. This goes for Cloakable Fusion
Reactor too, ofcourse.
If you spot someone building something juicy, but can't target it
because it isn't finished yet, target the spot it's being built on for later
bombardment. Remember, though, that targetting a spot as opposed to a target
with something means the red X target won't dissapear when the target is...
well, not with us any more.
"That Little Extra Something, Part Deux"
Try "A"
attacking with your Nuke Silo, then "S" Stopping it. It will open up, but
not fire. This shaves about 6 seconds of the time it takes to launch the
nuke when the time comes for such srastic measures. All units
use energy when they do their stuff. If you're in desperate need of energy,
you always have the option of turning your Radars, Sonars and Radar Jammers
off (ctrl-"R", "Off"), landing all your various Aircraft (ctrl-"P/W", "S")
and even turning off your Metal Extractors. Hell, just hit ctrl-"A", then
ctrl-"S" and toggle "off" in the menu. After your
bombers have released their bombs on a target that didn't die, and they are
about to head out in a wide arc in order to make another run, there's no
reason for you to have to wait for this. Let them continue a small distance
after the target, then "S" Stop them. Give them a few seconds to slow down,
then click on the target again. With practice, you can get them all to turn
on a dime on all their respective posistions, and proceed to bomb the target
again with minimal approach distance.
Sure, you might have a good feeling about many things, but would you bet against a guy saying that:
Four Lancets take out a cmdr in one fly-by - if he isn't moving.
Adv. Kbots build with 160 build speed.
CORE fusion plants produce 50 energy more than ARM's do.
Two shots from a Leveler will remove a Solar Plant wreckage.
CORE's Searcher is 5% cheaper than ARM's Skeeter (metal-wise).
ARM's cmdr outpaces CORE's by 1.2 to 1.07 m/s.
The actual Nuke Missile itself costs about 2k metal and 20k energy.
You never know when stuff like that can come in handy and earn you a beer at some LAN party or something. Go do your homework now.
The Attack command is not only useful when bombing or
shelling something. Ground units can also benifit from a little hands-on
guidance from time to time.
Take the latest craze, Pelicans, f.ex. People think they're oh so
great. Perhaps they are - if one's opponent isn't a gnug, at least. Gnugs know
that while a sub can't target them, they can still hit them and do very good
damage. Just "A" Attack past them - if the torpedoe crosses their path it will
make contact. This goes for units like Enforcers too, who can utilize both
their weapons at the same time in this way.
If the target is moving, you will need to target ahead of it. This
applies to Sub vs. Sub and Sub vs. Enforcer battles too. On a map like Gods Of
War, mastering the forced attack is extremely important, as the Sub vs.
Enforcer battles that take place can determine the outcome of the game. You
have 1100 metal swimming around there. Treating it with the utmost care is
much more important than getting that Metal Extractor in place 10 seconds
earlier. (ed: that's how 215 earned his nickname Unit Gnug - thru superb
control of naval units)
One of the less honorable tricks of the trade in TA
is the one where one gives ("shares") one or several Metal Makers with one's
opponent in order to deplete his precious energy storage of energy. Usually
this is used just as one attacks his cmdr with some units, so that he can't
D-Gun much or at all. This trick was seen used in the PGL finals at one point,
and won the game for the trickster.
There is no way to defend against this trick 100%, but if one is a
little coolheaded and has good reactions, one can minimize the damage done a
great deal. One way of doing this is to have Metal Makers of your own on a
group number, and when you notice your energy use rising drastically and
realize something is amiss, choose that group, hit ctrl-"Z" and turn them all
off. Note this won't work if the opponent is Core while you are Arm - in which
case you'll just have to locate the makers asap and turn them off manually, so
to speak.
Getting to reclaim the wreckage after a battle, esp. at sea, is about as important as winning the battle itself. If you lose 4 enforcers but get to reclaim the wreckage afterwards, all you really lose it the build time. Add to that your opponent's wreckage and one begins to understand why it is so important to hold sea-battles on one's own turf where it is easier to reclaim the wreckage afterwards.
Enough chit-chat, on to the actual tips:
Adv. Construction Subs play their role here. With their underwater ability, reclaim speed & range, you can sometimes get away with reclaiming wreckage from right under your opponent's patrolling Skeeters' noses. Decoy cmdr's can also be used for this.
A kinky little trick to deprive one's opponent from being able to reclaim wreckage at sea is "M" Moving a Skeeer/Searcher over on top of the wreckage and letting it die there. It's puny little wreck will replace the Conqueror's (or whatever), thereby causing a huge loss in income to one's opponent. A penny lost is a penny lost, as the saying goes. Be sure to put your Skeeter on Hold Position when you do this, or it will scuttle about and not stay in place after you've positioned it.
The minimap is an extremely useful tool when issuing orders to your units. Apart from tons of "normal" - yet nonetheless essential - uses, there are a few nifty tricks one can use it for as well:
Select an Atlas/Valkyrie and try to "L" Load one of your opponent's dots on the minimap. If you get the load icon on your screen it means it's a loadable unit (as opposed to f.ex. a structure).
If you think you've spotted your opponent's cmdr on the minimap, select a construction unit of your own and try to Reclaim (remember the time-saving "O" - "E" keyboard combo) the dot. If you can't, it means it's his cmdr alright. Now maybe you'll start using those jammers more on the small maps, huh? :)
This funny little trick, which I have taken the
liberty to name The Woodchopper, is about how to get rid of tight packs of
trees in a fast manner, a problem common to Commanders on some of the new Lush
World maps.
Here is what you do: Place a small cheap building in the middle of a
pack of trees in the area which you wish to clear. Now ctrl-"D" self-Destruct
this building and watch the blast wipe out the surrounding trees. They will
disappear totally, not light up in flames and leave a burnt tree instead - all
trees in an area a bit bigger than an Arm Vehicle Plant will be Swept away
totally. Being small and cheap, Metal Makers do nicely here, with their low
construction cost and good blast radius. You shouldn't be running out of such
small amounts of energy concidering the energy-abundant surroundings being the
problem in the first place. Btw, I might add that kami-kaze Krogoths also do a
good job as lumberjacks.
The almost gnug-like Cavedoggies designing the maps
in TA did a great job, no doubt about that. They did, however, make one slight
mistake when they designed the Metal Maps. The Thermal Vents on those maps
allow for no less than four Geothermal plants to be placed on them, each one
barely overlapping a corner of the vent, yielding a combined energy income
equalling than of an ARM Fusion Plant, but at a greatly reduced cost. Add to
that the fact that each Geo starts paying off as soon as it's in place,
reducing the burden of constructing the next one, and it becomes obvious that
it's worth getting the Geo's in place asap.
Ofcourse you all know this - the game has been out for 9 months,
afterall. Well did you know that the same goes for the thermal vents on Urban
Maps? And that the same thing is possible with all metal mines? A mine
yielding 2.0 with one metal extractor in place will yield 2.2 if four Metal
Extractors are placed correctly on it instead of the one... That the 159 metal
for the three extra Extractors would have to be in place for approximately
13.25 minutes just to break even is another point entirely (not to mention the
energy cost).
You've probably dabbled in the use of Crawling bombs
a little bit - maybe even tried the self-destructing flying Crawling Bomb
trick. But not much came of it; there were too many random factors and too
much micromanagement involved for it to seem worth it. And on their own they
do seem a bit hard to find a good use for, don't they?
Well have you considered moving them underwater? That's right -
they're amphibious. They can target and attack underwater. Sure, they're slow
as hell, but there are still some fun uses for them. Try them on GoW or C2C.
If you're not in the water, f.ex. if you're building a Bertha instead,
crawling out with these might excite your opponent, making him think you're in
such a state of despair that you've given up building the bertha and seek a
quick death at the hands of his well-prepared defense. He might even pump 1100
metal into a sub when he sees that dot halfway across the water on C2C - only
to discover it's was a cheap version of a decoy cmdr, innocent attempt to take
out maybe a few tidals, and general diversion. The little buggers
unfortunately have a lousy LoS, making it difficult to detonate them in time
even if you're giving them your undivided attention. It is possible to react
to the Enforcer's incoming depth charge in time though: you don't need to
self-destruct it in order to get them to detonate - "A" force attacking the
spot right in front of their nose will do the trick as soon as you issue the
order.
At gnug-level play, winning Unit-vs.-Unit battles is
paramount to winning the game. Thus, it can be well worth it spending a few
moments or your time learning to control f.ex. a Freedom Fighter or group of
Hawks optimally.
What is even more important is scenarios involving expensive yet
fragile units such as submarines. When it comes to mexican standoffs between
subs, there is what Nakor would describe as a Good Trick to winning the
battle. You need to keep your most expensive unit alive as long as possible,
and one way to do this is to put other inexpensive units in front of it to
take the damage. One sub and half a dozen Skeeters should stand a fair chance
of taking out two enemy subs in this manner, just like placing your cmdr in
front of your sub give you a tremendous advantage in sub vs. sub battles.
The time it takes to repair a unit or structure
depends on two things: it's build time, and the build speed of the
construction unit doing the repairing.
"uhm... and?" you ask. Well, there is at least one situation where
one can take significant advantage of this knowledge. Try using your cmdr to
repair a sub. You'll notice it repairs extremely fast. With experience, the
cmdr/sub attack can be very effective - I've personally been able to take out
two whole Enforcers in this fashion on more than one occasion, using three
tricks: placing cmdr in front of sub, using forced attack so my sub's
torpedoes hit the moving enforcers, and repairing the sub with my cmdr. Sure,
things can get hairy since you're pretty much dead if you lose your sub, but
sometimes stunts like this are required to make a comeback.
A somewhat overlooked yet very useful unit is the ARM
"Fibber", a submarine sonar jammer. The jammer effectively makes any of your
underwater units or structures invisible to sonar and any
other units' (such as destroyers, cruisers, subs etc.) Line of Sight in the
main map display. As a result of this, your opponents' units will only open
fire on a jammed unit if fired upon by that unit.
This characteristic leads to interesting uses in combination with
other units. Try taking a group of subs set to "hold fire", guard them with a
couple Fibbers, and move them into your opponents naval base. Because they're
jammed and on hold fire, nothing will fire at your submarines and you can do
some serious selective destruction of your opponent's sea base with relative
impunity, oftentimes eliciting an expression from your opponent of "Huh? How'd
you do that?".
Another interesting sonar jammer unit combination is
to have the jammer guard a construction sub. You can then move the
construction sub into your opponents base and have it reclaim anything they
have that can't launch an undersea weapon, including their shipyards. This
Gnug was holding his ribs and chortling with glee in a recent game at the
thought of what his opponents expression must be. Gnug had a jammer masked
construction sub following along after one of his opponents construction
ships, reclaiming structures it was building as soon as they were done. On the
map, he could see structures being built and then disappearing a short time
later. Mmmmmm - free metal.
You may be wondering why you can't just reclaim anything your
opponent has in the sea. It's essential to not try and reclaim things such as
torpedo launchers, destroyers, etc. They consider your reclaiming them an
attack and will return fire at your construction sub, even though they can't
see the unit in their LOS.
"Aaaaargh"
Indeed, having one's naval base ripped apart by an unseen foe is an
aggravating experience, at best. Not knowing what to do about it next time is
much worse. Well, thank gnug we're around to help you :)
There is no way whatsoever to see underwater jammed units on the
main display. And since they're jammed, they won't show up on even with sonars
on the minimap radar. The story doesn't finish here, however - when any of
units (incl. airborne ones) get within LoS of the jammed units, they will show
up - but on the minimap! So be ready to target your invisible guests on the
minimap with torpedo launchers and -planes and go bump into them with a few
skeeters or patrol the seas with cheap Peepers in order to obtain LoS. Also,
don't forget the forced attack option when you know something is out there.
Another noteworthy fact is that a submarine's LoS is practically nonexistant;
if you have your own ship jammers in place, you can render your opponent's
subs practically blind.
That your opponent can complicate matters greatly by adding his own
skeeters to the fray is another story entirely.
As hinted at above, an extremely effective tactic for
attacking with jammed submarines is to take along a good deal of skeeters, and
add to the group slowly yet steadily, all the time moving them about in a
distracting manner. Because your only recourse for finding jammed underwater
units is the minimap, the skeeters mask which dots they are. This makes it
extremely difficult for your opponent to target them, letting your submarines
shoot your enemy to your heart's content. Also, smugling in an adv. con sub
will let you repair your other subs and reclaim any DT that might be in the
way.
When using destroyers and cruisers to target jammed subs, you'll
notice the same thing as when you try to target Pelicans with subs - "A"
targetting on the minimap on the actual unit won't cause your unit to fire
anything. Like with subs vs. Pelicans, you need to target just behind the
enemy unit.
Nukes will work wonders against large groups of subs.
At around 2k metal for the missile vs. 1100 for every sub you take out this
can be well worth it, and the threat alone a considerable problem for the
subber.
Actually what has proven to be one of the most effective weapons
against groups of subs is a self-destructing Hive/Colossus. These Aircarriers,
with their large energy production (they produce 370 energy and use 40 for
their adv. radar, in case you hadn't noticed) make for excellent kamikaze
units. With their slow speed, the subs don't even stand a chance of evading
this rather unusual counter-attack. Also, being the preferred energy-producing
unit/structure on water maps by many people, Hives don't need to be built
solely in anticipation of a sub rush, and are often close at hand when a large
sub rush materializes well into the game.
Guard towers like Pulverizers, Guardians, Intimidators and Buzzsaws
can actually also hit underwater units, so feel free to go run amok with
everything you've got. Finally worth mentioning is that with the Adv.
Targetting Facility your units will automatically fire at any dots that appear
on the minimap, incl. jammed subs.
The high walls built by an adv. con unit will offer your Bertha partial protection from practically anything. They won't do much to stop incoming Bertha/Intimidator shells though. If this is the kind of protection you need, f.ex. if you're in a Bertha Race on a map like Evad, C2C, L&2H or whatever, try building a Metal Storage in front of your Bertha. The structure will take one hit from a Bertha shell, thereby prolonging your own Bertha's life a little longer. And you can keep rebuilding it to your hearts content. In fact, the structure doesn't even need to be finished - you can just have a con aircraft hovering above the site and set it to start building a new Metal Storage evey time it gets blown to pieces.
The late fad of going air first on maps like GoW has meant that Dogfighting is back in style. Winning the very first Freedom Fighter Fight can be very important, and as such, it might be well worth it touching up on your dogfighting skillz. When you bluder into an enemy FF, try to do these things (these tips are for situations where the FF's are the only units with weapons, ie there aren't any Defenders or Skeeters in the area):
Pick your fight on home turf, where your other units will distract the opponents' FF, causing it to have trouble targetting your FF. Even if you don't have any units that can attack your opponent's FF, your cmdr will provide your opponent's FF a target, maybe saving the life of your own FF.
Do not have +shootall activated, as your FF will fire at your opponents' buildings instead of waiting for an enemy unit.
Stay right on your opponent's FF's tail the whole time. Hopefully he will at some time try to fly away, either to escape your FF or to maneuver into a fireing position. Give him a tiny lead, then follow up. Your FF should fire a shot without your opponent being able to escape or return fire.
You can just click around the map in a normal fashion, but then you're risking targetting a solar or something. For this reason, I prefer to use "P" Patrol-click instead.
Of course, lag plays a significant role here. On LAN things can get delicate, on TEN, totally random.
After winning the first FFF (Freedom Fighter Fight),
and your opponents hasn't gotten his 2nd aircraft up, you have the possibility
of practically securing the win. A FF is enough to take out the aircraft being
built in an Airplant. Just fly south of the plant, and "A" Attack the spot
where the new aircraft is being nanolathed.
There is fortunately a simple way to deal with this though. Move
your cmdr to as close to the bottom of the airplant as possible. The FF won't
be able to hit the aircraft being nanolathed because of your cmdr absorbing
the shots. Alternatively you can build a structure in that spot, like a Metal
Storage or a Solar Panel.
The only other option you have of making a comeback against a better
player is reclaiming the plant and going sea or something else futile. A LLT
will also repel a FF, but that will put you way behind the resource race too.
If you've never lost to a FF rush before, I guess you're prolly
thinking "wtf is this guy rambling about?". Look any Gnug up for a game
sometime, and he´ll be glad to enlighten you.
You can use your Construction Aircraft to build,
repair and reclaim things offscreen. Anything placed at the very top of the
map is subject to this. On GoW, the two rocks at top of the screen are
offscreen reclaimable. I once had a guy annoy me by starting to reclaim a BB I
had places at the very top right of the map. Once he got started, there was
nothing I could do to shoot the plane down. He didn't actually finish
reclaiming it, as I just repaired it, but it bugged me nonetheless.
If you set a kbot or two to reclaim a BB and at least ten con air to
Guard it, they will hover above it constantly and repair it at a tremendous
rate, even when it gets bombed. When it does get attacked, your con air will
be in place to repair it straight away, and you can reissue your kbot's orders
to repair it too. If your con air are moving in and out too much, the
reclaim/repair ratio is off. Still, even f they do stray a bit, at least it
won’t be way the hell out to sea like they'd do if the BB is at full health.
And if you place your BB up at the top of the screen, the con air might stay
offscreen a lot, sparing them somewhat from skeeter/pelican attacks.
No, it’s not some lame plug for Tiberian Sun, but
rather a proven method of dealing with stray commanders. Obviously, S&S is a
good idea in any situation, but this tip specifically concerns the situation
when you’re playing a water map like
Gnugs of War (4.08 MB) and you spot the enemy cmdr
wandering about underwater somewhere. Your Enforcers or Lurkers might be too
far away to reach and kill him before he gets ashore and to safety, but there
is a different approach. Try sending all your Skeeters to surround him. Even
though he is underwater, ships can’t pass right over his head – or more
importantly, he can’t pass right under ships. If he is surrounded by Skeeters,
the only way he can get out (besides sending other units to help him,
ofcourse), is reclaiming or capturing a Skeeter one by one. If you have a
sizable amount of Skeeters, this will take him quite a while. Just a dozen is
enough to slow him down a long time, and a with practice, only a few can be
used effectively for this cause too.
It goes without saying that while you have him slowed down, you
should move in your Units with depth charges or torpedos if you can. It takes
a long time to take a cmdr out with an Enforcer, but a pair of them, or a sub,
can do the job pretty quickly. Or ofcourse the Goode Olde Two Lancet & Nuke
Combo works wonders, and calmly building a torpedo launcher with a con ship
within shooting range is as beautiful as it gets.
Scratch the "few extra inches due to the BB's
randomness" tip. How would you like adding a few extra screenlengths to
it's range?
It's pretty easy, actually; just hard to be precise with it. Try
targetting as close as possible to your own Bertha using "A" Forced Attack.
The Bertha will fire it's shot in the same direction, but somewhere between
30-40% further than it's usual max range. Target a little furthar away and it
will fire a wee bit closer, but still outside max range. It's not as if this
is a game-winning trick for big maps, but I can definately picture it coming
in handy in those games where you've got your DT rows and several Berthas
already in place on Painted Desert.
This trick does however practically double the worth of a
Vulcan/Buzzsaw though, as their short range render them relatively worthless
otherwise, and inaccuracy not an issue anyway.
Thanks to Larry Lee for posting about this tip on the GnugBoard.
The TA engine is not 100% perfect. One of it's faults
is that while weapons like lasers and artillery shells aim for the body of the
unit, missiles aim for the bottom of targets (maybe to do with having to hit
aircraft, who knows). So what, you ask. Well, I'm sure you all know: Pelicans.
While lasers and artillery units still work, missiles and rockets will aim for
their feet, with the effect that when the Pelicans are in the water, they
barely touch them.
This is where the Gnug Tip comes in: when you have Defenders
shooting at Pelicans, try using "A" forced Attack just beyond them.
Fortunately, the TA engine is still a far cry ahead of the SC engine (heh,
sounds like an oxymoron - "SC engine"). The missiles will hit the Pelicans,
because they occupy the space where the missles are travelling. The most
common use for this tip is with Defenders (both land and NS) vs. Pelicans.
It's also very useful for when your enemy's cmdr is being silly and strolling
along your shore, D-gunning everything he can reach while not leaving the
water. Just when he thinks he's being clever, surprise him with this little
trick. This also goes for when you have Missile and Rocket Kbots, Vehicles and
Hovercraft. Curiosum: This won't work for Skeeters (and Pelicans
themselves), since their missiles are their secondary weapon, and can't be
used to "A" force Attack anything (if you try, they will swim close to the
target in order to fire their shorter primary weapon).
The gall of us Gnugs to post a tip ilke this just
while the heated debate concerning bombers is going on! Well, I would like to
make it clear that, yes, this is a bug - but then, it's a very small one, just
like many others we have publicized before. On with the good stuff...
The tip concerns Moho Metal Makers, and it's very simple. When
you're building it, try shooting it with something (Defender, f.ex). Just give
it a single shot, and then stop. Even though it isn't finished, it will start
doing it's stuff. This means you can start it with an adv con veh or whatever,
shoot it once, and then let a con air finish the job. Also, this makes it
easier to manage very large excess Energy flows.
There is a downside, however: once you have given it a peck, you
can't turn it off before it's done. So if you've experienced suddenly losing
tons of energy without knowing why, maybe it's because your opponent found
your MMM in progress of being built, gave it a little nudge, and left it
alone, laughing madly while imagining your total confusion and subsequent
panic as your energy begins to drain at 800/ a tick before you're ready! ..
well, ok, maybe that's a bit far out.
You know when you set your cmdr to guard something,
and the something is both at 100% health and done producing units, the cmdr
will wander around the something in silly circles? Well, there's a trick to
avoid this, and even multiply the usefulness of the Guard command manyfold.
Basically, position your cmdr next to the something and hit
shift-"P" Patrol right next to him. He will stand there and assist in
building new structures, repairing damaged ones, and reclaim metal, within his
own build radius (note: CORE cmdr's build radius is larger than Arm's).
If you're desperately trying to maintain a foothold on an isle on Oooweeee,
you can use this trick, and he can be used to automatically repair up to 8
Defenders without moving.
Putting the cmdr on a longer patrol route is also possible. F.ex.,
set a con air to build a row of Defenders, and set your cmdr to patrol right
along this planned row - he will stop to help build each Defender. Usually the
most efficient way is to set the con air to build two rows, with room for the
cmdr to walk along the middle. Micromanaging the cmdr 100% is slightly more
efficient, but also requires 100% of your time, unlike just setting the patrol
route once.
There are many uses for using the patrol command with your cmdr in
this manner, but I especially like the one where he stands still and does it.
I dunno why - they don't call me Weird Gnug for nothing.
Sometimes the only way to stop a huge army rolling
your way is to line up a row or two of Dragon's Teeth. Cavedog made it so as
the DT's real cost is actually the realtime it takes to place them, and the
build time of the buggers. The 8 metal cost is obviously practically
irrelavent. While I can't really tell you how to click faster with the mouse,
I can share a little Gnuggy trick with you on how to cut the effective build
time of a row of DT's down considerably.
Obviously, guarding the DT builder with con air is one way to speed
things up, and using the cmdr in the same manner as mentioned in the last tip
is also a very efficient way to get the DT's up fast. Most often, however,
you'll probably be using a con vehicle for the job. A small but clever change
in the build order for you DT row will reduce the con veh's wasted time (ie
non-building time) by about 60%.
Instead of the normal 123456789 order of building DT's (ie one after
the other), try this order instead: 132654987. The first 132 is to align the
con veh with the line of DT's, the subsequent 654 and 987 are the most
effective way for a con veh to build a staight line of DT's - instead of build
one, drive, stop, repeat, it will build three, drive, stop, build three. The
fact that the con vehicle builds the DT's even when the arm is
retracting/protruding is what saves the most time by using this build order.
Obviously this isn't a revolutionary trick, but I'm sure we've all
tried being rushed thru a hole in our DT walls before it wasn't finished in
time. Maybe this trick'll save your non-furry little behind next time.
Gnugs don't fancy urban dwellings much, but we have
noticed a thing or two about them that we thought we might share with you.
Pretty obvious and straightforward tips, really, but here goes anyway:
The tall reclaimable structures can be useful in more ways than one.
Some of them are large enough to completely cover a structure built right
behind them. When looking for a place to put your nuke silo, Advanced
Targetting Facilty, or even *gasp* Core Wind Generator, you might consider
hiding it from view entirely behind one of these superstructures.
In the unlikely case that your cmdr is next to one of the
structures, and you desperately need a bit of metal asap, you might consider
dgunning it once or twice. This damages the structure and decreases the metal
stored by a 1000 a shot, reducing the time required to reclaim it. Careful,
though - the third dgun blast will destroy it entirely. Hmm - there's a new
idea for why to cmdr rush: dgun all your opponent's metal on his side of the
urban map.
There comes a certain points in large games when
Finks just won't cut it. More effective ways of scouting are required in order
to penetrate far enough into the enemy base. Hawks, with their increased
speed, armor, maneuverability and small size make great scouting units.
Combine these units with some experience and a couple gnug tricks, and you'll
be finding that elusive BB that's been shelling you for hours in no time.
What you need to do is get your Hawks to spread out nicely, so you
get to see as much area as possible of your opponent's base. One very easy and
effective was of doing this is simply to "A" attack a spot somewhere behind
the area you want to scout. The Hawks will fan out something like 30 degrees
to each side until halfway there, then turn towards the spot you attacked,
giving you a broad sweeping view of your opponent's base. The more AA your
opponent has, the more Hawk's you'll need, ofcourse.
Couple this with some sneaky offscreen-flying, and your opponent's
base will have to be formidable indeed to hide juicy targets effectively. In
order to get all your Hawks offscreen, simply fly towards the edge of the
screen and "A" attack the ground just before it. The Hawks will fire their
missiles and proceed into their usual wide arc behind the target before they
would normally turn around and attack the target again. When they're all
offscreen, simply "M" move them towards the corner of side you want them to
travel in. Then, "T" track them as they fly along the side of the map (just
offscreen ofcourse) and "M" move them into the map again when the Hawks have
reached the area you want scouted.
This tip is primarely directed at you Eagles out
there who enojoy producing massive armies of Adv. Air units, but is applicable
to everyone searching for ways to get their production rolling faster and
cheaper.
I cannot begin to count the times I've seen ppl build several - even
rows - of Adv. Aircraft Plants, with little or no units guarding the
production of the plants already constructed. I'll Give you a simple example
of why this is Just Plain Wrong:
That's what, about 7k Metal difference between the
two combinations? There are other benifits to the second combination too: you
can use your 5 Adv. Con. Veh's for plenty of other things than building
Aircraft should you feel like it. Sure, one plant might be easier to destroy
than 6, but six plants also take up quite a lot of room, are spotted easier,
and generally provide a psycologically juicier nuke-target because of their
high metal worth.
And don't even get me started on how many Adv. Con Kbots or Air can
Guard the same plant. Think about it: rather than build a new Adv. Airplant,
build two Adv. Con. Aircraft - about 2k metal cheaper, gives you the same
build speed and a helluva lot more versatility (you're not going to see your
airplants fly off and build Adv. Radar where you need them, or reclaim a
couple thousand metal from wrecks after clashes near your borders etc). The
extra energy cost for the Con. units contra the plant is more than negligable
by the amount of Metal you can save.
Having almost no excess resources on the end-screen
after a long, epic battle is always an impressive feat (esp. if you won) - it
shows you know how to take your production to the next level, and use it.
The trick is how to use it productively. This is always easier to do
when you're in the offensive, which is usually the best "strategy" (altho
"deciding" 'I'm going to Surround & Slaughter my opponent' is far from
actually doing it - afterall, your opponent might well be trying to do the
same thing). While you might have uptowards two dozen plants producing units
(samsons, hawks, bombers, cruisers, subs, pels etc), that still rarely strains
your resource income above 150 metal/sec, +/- 50 (you can tell I'm talking big
games here ;).
In any case, whether you're producing +300 metal/sec
and are having problems using half of it, or have hit the unit limit and
beginning to run into excess, here's a few ideas to using the otherwise wasted
resources:
Ofcourse, some of these examples are rather extreme, and quite unrealistic in
anything but the largest Crystal Cracked games. The idea can be applied to
smaller games too, tho - excess metal early in the game is far from optional.
When you notice your resources filling the max storage capacity, just build a
metal storage or some kinda plant.
Excess energy is also un-good, so don't forget useful
energy-consuming units suchlike all Metal Makers, BB's, Nuke and Antinuke
Silos etc. Getting +3 metal/sec out of your +200 excess energy income early on
can spell the difference between success and failure in tight, low-resource
games.
On many water maps, the first clashes will doubtless
be skeeters trying to overcome each other's few numbers, as getting your
opponent out of water in the beginning can give you a significant head start,
and even win the game for you right there.
Getting back into the water can be a tough deal indeed.. with no
resources, almost impossible, but with a few (and help from a teammate maybe),
it can be done. If you have a shipyard out there which you would like to keep,
and it's in danger of being destroyed by Skeeters with +shootall activated,
try setting it to build tons of units. Many of the Skeeter's missiles will
keep hitting the next unit trying to be built, and not damage the shipyard at
all - thereby maybe saving it for when you can reclaim your harbour.
Many factors go into this, ofcourse: amount of units attacking your
shipyard, it's proximity to the shore and your cmdr's D-gun, any land support
you might have (Defenders etc), opponent's willingness to risk losing the
skeeters he has, etc etc. But overall, you lose nothing by trying to save your
shipyard this way. You can even use the trick while running on any kind of
resource deficiancy. You need to set it to produce quite a number, though, as
it's production-queue will usually be counting down at a rate of ½-2 units a
second.
Ever have that too stuffed feeling of vehicle lab indigestion when someone has rudely parked one of their vehicles in your lab... and you thought the only way to fix it was to reclaim the entire lab? Well, gnugs spell relief using the 'E' order to do a forced reclaim of the offending vehicle. You can use your commander to do this, or, if he's busy wandering somewhere else on the map and you have a spare construction unit nearby that's not busy spelling your name with DTs, use the construction unit to do the reclaim. - [D_Old_Man]
The Peeper, in it's own way, is much akin to the Gnugs. Friendly and innocent on the surface, but capable of mighty feats in battle. On those occasions where you send out a peeper to scout the enemy base, and are surprised to find serious gaps in his anti air cover, you can use the Peeper, or Fink, to cut off your enemy's information. Simply land your Peeper next to his radar, hit Ctrl-D and watch your self destructing Peeper take the radar with it. You can then feel free to charge in with an assault force. - [Ionosphere]
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