Rushing as TEC

Is it possible to rush as TEC, assuming that your opponent (in a  3v3, 4v4, 5v5) is also rushing you and is Advent or Vasari?  (Arguably, with feed this is possible...but without feed?)

 

Both the Advent and the Vasari have stronger rushes to the TEC.  Getting carriers w/o feed takes too long.  Getting double or triple the number of LRMs is not possible unless the opponent is not playing well.

 

It seems that the TEC is always going to fail, unless he chooses some econ upgrades that kick in soon enough for him to provide the multiple ships that he needs.

 

Maybe I'm not seeing it clearly (which is the reason for the post). Any input is appreciated.

 

RM

5,080 views 13 replies
Reply #1 Top

Spam scouts is an option

One thing I find hard with TEC is fighting them under their repair bays cover as they are so good. So it may not be easy to rush someone's homeworld, but you could rush a roid next to them and then push out LRM to fight under your repair cover which is a big equaliser (from a Vassari player's perspective I hate it when TEC do this as I often have to pull back as attrition will kill my fleet and egg)

Reply #2 Top

hrm, I guess that's true.  What are you referring to by "attrition"? (RoN used to have an amazing attrition element, wherein you took damage any time you were in an opponents sphere of control).

Reply #3 Top

Just that his ships are cheaper then mine to build and if his are being repaired and mine aren't, and he can bring replacements is quicker and cheaper then I can, I will run out of fighting force while he maintains his.

Reply #4 Top

When I think of TEC rush , I think of Kodiak rush.

Very effective , but you need to have skill...

Am not going to describe how to get to it , because if you cant manage that yourself , then you shouldnt be using it anyway.

1) Utilise Kodiak health to its advantage. Treat them like Caps. Retreat them and heal them and send them back.

2) Be very very aware of your second card you play. Could it be Flak , Hoski , more kodies , lrms , sieges , carriers. This is where you need to really focus and adapt . You are basically countering the enemies counter to your kodiaks

3) Your starter cap is important. Sova is very good to use , or the Siege Cap. Akkan is fine too and its targeting uplink can really help with the Kodiaks short range weapons.

Reply #5 Top

You can certainly rush as TEC, but it is the hardest race to pull off a rush attack.  Vasari will be grabbing neutrals with their scouts giving them an economic advantage to fight off your rush, and Advent are faster at getting carriers out as well as arguably the toughest scouts, both of which can fight off LRMs.

The goal of a TEC rush might be to nuke an expansion with Marza, and then pull back or dig in while you build your fleet to compete against whatever the opponent is making to counter your LRM.  Once you add your own carriers, hoshikos, or flak, you can resume the offensive.

HC rushing is kind of hard to pull off if the neighboring enemy is attacking you, but it works pretty well otherwise if you can back them up with hoshikos and flak or fighter cover to kill the bombers.  I don't really consider this a "rush" attack though.

Reply #6 Top

HC rush is a bad idea.

Reply #7 Top

Ok, Here's an idea. It will only work if you are only a few jumps away from your enemies HW but if you do it right, you'll be in good shape. The main idea here would be to rush Timed explosives and take out your opponents means of either production (factory), or production of Lrms(labs). Start out by building 2 military labs a Marza and a good deal of scouts (8-12). Don't forget to get a colonizer frigate after a few scouts have been produced. Soon as the Marza is done scuttle the cap ship factory and build a 3rd Military lab. Research timed explosives. By now the first couple of scouts you've made should have found your opponents hw. You have to mircro manage them to find it, don't let them wander out to the rest of the system by engaging auto explore and try to keep them together in packs of 2 or 3. Locate your enemies hw and roid. Once you find his roid, immediately attack constructors, same at the hw. Keep a close eye on your scouts because when timed mines research is finished it will start out on autocast on all your scouts, so you'll want to turn it off so they don't use it on something undesirable. There is actually a hotkey to select ALL scouts, it will be beneficial to find it and use it to turn off autocast on all your scouts. Your marza should be colonizing your roid during all of this and then heading towards your opponents roid, if you feel you can kill the militia at a planet in between you and your opponent quickly do so and move on, if not have a scout that's used T.E. already run circles around the well to keep the neutrals busy while your Lrms pass through to the front lines, you DON'T want your ships to be any kind of damaged before they reach the battle. Soon as timed explosives is finished start researching LRMs and building them along with more scouts (make sure to turn off autocast on the scouts when they come out. Once your scouts destroy all constructors target VALUABLE buildings with the scouts, frigate factories and labs should be your first targets, and then repair bays if you weren't able to kill the constructors before one went up. Respawn time for constructors isn't too terribly long so keep an eye out for them. 4-5 scouts should be able to handle any 1 structure, but you may need 1 more per building if there's a repair bay present. T.E. takes around 15 minutes to cool down, so its not very likely you'll have a ship able to use it twice, making scouts that haven't used it more valuable so keep that in mind. When your Marza reaches his roid start bombardment immediately if there's no enemy ships in the well. Your LRMS will likely be outnumbered if your opponent is Vasari, but you can use your scouts to help bring them down. Be sure to keep an eye out in both wells (roid and hw, and check to see if there's a 3rd colonized planet so you can send scouts there to kill constructors) for constructors and kill them immediately with scouts, you cannot let him build anything. Without reinforcements your Marza, Lrms and scouts, and a few flaks (for damage soaking and carrier counter if you need them) should be able to overpower the enemy fleet, and if you can keep his constructors from building, it won't matter how much feed the guy gets. That is the KEY to the strategy though so be ever vigilant. Learn and use the hotkeys to select ALL cap ships and all scout ships to make managing them easier. It'll take some practice, but you can be pretty deadly if you do it right.

 

Against Vasari I would recommend going after his frigate factory first, since Assailants only require 1 lab and your opponent will likely have at least 2 when your scout fleet arrives. It is more difficult to pull off against Vasari because of this and the fact that space eggs colonizer makes building construction faster.

Against Advent, use your best judgement about targeting priority, but DO NOT let an advent player produce too many Illuminators and keep any production of drone hosts to a minimum.

Its not difficult to counter this strategy, but in order to do so you have to see it coming and be decent at micro managing. The easiest thing to do to counter is build a few static defenses and a repair bay, but generally people don't do this (ai does so it probably won't work as well) and it won't really work if the scouts are already in the well killing stuff. Repair bays will keep constructors and building alive while static defenses (maybe 2-3 turrets) will be able to blow a scout or two away before they can set charges. A carrier rush could also potentially counter this strategy, but you can adapt to a carrier rush simply by building flaks instead of lrms. You'll most likely see an Advent player attempt this so keep a look out for it. 3 or 4 drone hosts can ruin things pretty quickly.

Reply #8 Top

Great ideas!  Seems like the scout rush is very labor intensive, and if you fail/are not fast enough, you will have a hard time recovering...

I saw King do a sova rush, followed by kodiaks which was....interesting.  It takes a bit of time to get all those labs up and the research going though....

 

It seems I used to be more successful with the two cap start: rush with the marza, colonize/clear planets with the akkan, followed by LRMs backing up the marza.  This delays your opponent, cause you can usually take out his roid and he'll lose his initial investment in it, but you cant do much more as his own LRMs and cap will show up soon after the planet is bombarded...making you retreat--hopefully to more than a handfull of lrms.

 

Someone in chat the other day was talking about someone rushing to hoshis...doesnt seem like that's much of a strat since it's a support ship (unless you pump out the hoshis with the lrms, but you still need SOME firepower to do anything substantial)....guess I'm missing the point of this one....

 

RM

Reply #9 Top

Raging Amish wrote a guide for how to do the tactic Dec has described back in the 1.05 days.

Hoshikos rush with the lvl 5 upgrade would in theory see their ships disabled and unable to fire their weapons... (assuming no SC)

Reply #10 Top

Quoting Proletari, reply 6
HC rush is a bad idea.
End of Proletari's quote

Not when I do it...

Its also a very effective strat to feed towards as the reward for the extra push in resources can cause a landslide advantage in your favor.

Reply #11 Top

HC rush is a bad idea.
End of quote

I'd say yes if you're really close to an opponent likely to rush.

Unless of course you're f-ing amazing.

A fifth tier Tech Rush is tough to pull-off, but can hugely beneficial. I would recommend this for situations in which a lower tiered (1-3) rush against you is not an immediate threat. You can pull this off well if there are several ice or volcanic planets between you and your closest enemy, and a decent number of easily claimed expansions / neutrals near you.

Reply #12 Top

Like any case, I really think scouting is your best course of action.  If your enemy isn't getting a serious army, LRF's of any stripes can win the game right then and there.  If you don't see an opportunity, I find TEC is usually better off biding their time.  You have those wonderful Hoshikos waiting for you at the three lab level, I say get hoshikos quickly and make that your time to push.

Reply #13 Top

Quoting P5yy, reply 10



Quoting Proletari,
reply 6
HC rush is a bad idea.



Not when I do it...

Its also a very effective strat to feed towards as the reward for the extra push in resources can cause a landslide advantage in your favor.
End of P5yy's quote

 

P5yy, were you playing yellow with jbaum, bagsx, me, etc in a 5x5 last night and you did an HC rush?