Supreme commander ACU rush?

[number41]

What are people's strategy in the early tech 1 stages of SupCom? I prefer to play "Assassination" mode so you cant just run into the other players base using your ACU. In annihalation, etc what is there to stop you building a tech 1 factory and immediately heading down to the other players base to get killed by his units hence wiping out their base before they even get to tech 2?

I've used it over and over and I cant see a way to stop it. Most people keep their commander in their base until later on, but playing an annihalation game, as soon as a tech 1 factory is up, rushing their base with your ACU as he's not needed and letting him blow up (or just pressing CTRL+K) takes out their whole base within 5 mins of the game starting!! I cant see a way to stop it either on the smaller maps? The ACU isnt needed so you may as well suicide him every time I've read it's how people keep winning 1v1 maps in ranked games all the time.

Larger maps dont have this problem, but how do you stop it on the small maps?

 

[ExRayTed]

The comm-bomb was a low-down dirty tactic in TA too.Marching your commander into your opponents base,sending an air transport to pick up his commander then ctrl-D to annihilate him over his own base or transporting your own commander along with 50 or so cheap lvl 1 spy planes to decoy any air defence were all frowned heavily upon.

The problem was there was no way to stop this from happening in early game.We just used to agree at the start 'No comm-bombing' and people mostly stuck to it (on Wireplay at least).It's a cheap tactic no matter what anyone says and won't last if any kind of community emerges.

 

[calnen]

Yeah, when we played TA we just used to agree not to do it. You're playing for fun afterall, not just to win. Whats fun about spending 3 minutes watching your commander walk across the map and then die?

Presumably there'll be a way to stop it, even if it's nothing more than a 'blacklist' of players that do it often.

 

[number41]

Ahhh "Comm-bombing" I've seen that term plastered around and didnt know what it referred to! I suppose the best way is to just agree on not doing it. Either that or continually play "assassination" mode so you cant use your commander as a suicide tool.

 

[V|per]

I've read it's how people keep winning 1v1 maps in ranked games all the time.

Mode is always assassination on ranked games, so cant be done, well, it can, but it will lose you the game, or if you get his commander, earn u a draw..

 

[number41]

Mode is always assassination on ranked games, so cant be done, well, it can, but it will lose you the game, or if you get his commander, earn u a draw..

Thats good to hear! I shy away from ranked games most of the time as I just prefer to play for the long game rather than for the win. Or more to the point, if I played ranked games I'd just lose each time and break my keyboard

 

[Fx-Overlord]

There's rushing with your ACU to nuke your enemy and then there's using you ACU offensively. As people have stated, the former is frowned upon and in assassination you can't really do it. Also the nuke damage has been taken down in the last patch so it isn't as effective as previously.

Now, using your ACU offensively is crucial IMO on small maps (5x5km) to reinforce your early force and to gain an upper hand. For instance, last night, i was playing a few friends at Sentry Point. One of my mates was driving me back to my own base with his mantis, so after mustering a handful of auroras, i used my ACU to drive him back. With this i was then able to establish a base at his front door step with T2 point defenses, t2 anti missile launchers and could use missile launchers to hit his base whilst still under protection of PDs and anti missile. This of course also meant that he was cut off from some mass supplies.

So, using your ACU offensively on such small maps is definately worth it!

 

[.:MBK:.]

only time ive done that with my ACU was to force a kinda draw out of the game as i got trashed at the end but then had my commander slip unoticed into the enemy base to get shot to bits just cos it seemed amusing and wasnt really a tactic, more a last ditch at doing as much dmg as possible before losing

 

[PoD]

I am no expert, but the ACU is effectively an experimental using T2 and T3 weaponry, so it makes light work of ANY T1 unit!

Once you have established your base and have a few T1 engineers about the commander is more use as an offensive weapon. You can push back small to medium forces of T1 units with your ACU and then attack with your own force.

This forces the enemy ACU to retaliate else he gets punished quickly. So if someone doesn't use their ACU offensively whilst in the early T1 then they end up at a major disadvantage.

Use the ACU to hold choke points or to pincer enemy forces. Chances of them getting into your base early are slim as the time it takes them to reach your base you can have an equal force already there and can then cut the attack line in two and clean up the rest from behind.