Bots vs Vehicles and other Units

Hi,

relatively new to this style of RTS. Play the game for fun..

but I was thinking if someone could help me out with this.

What, as a general rule, is the correct time to use each unit?

If I am trying to invade a planet with a ground force from a teleport what type of composition would i be looking at?

depends on whether or not you have T2, but definitely put spinners in, no matter what, or your teleporter is gonna die

if I invade, I like to put spinners & tanks (or slammers) through to secure the position, and then I'll put vanguards through to spearhead the assault

let's assume its pretty late game so t2 is involved

You put spinners in because most players will have lots of bombers patrolling their planet for the exact purpose of taking out teleporters from enemy orbital fabbers quickly.

If I'm invading, it's usually with a large t2 army. But, besides spinners, I mix some bolos and dox in there too, because the t2 tanks have a slow rate of fire, and if they are fighting an army of dox, each of their shots only kills one dox so a huge amount of dps is wasted. The t1 units help clear up the enemy t1 units quickly so your t2 units can focus on other t2 units or structures.

Yeah I do usually like to add Dox's into the mix but they just seem to get destroyed by longer range units without gaining any ground.

Haven't messed around with Vanguards too much I should probably add those in to close that gap

Vanguards are good for soaking up large amounts of damage, from stuff like defenses.
Throw in a few combat fabbers and they're borderline invulnerable.

bots are best at raiding and versatility, vehicles are your frontline units

I like doing a mix t1 and t2 vehicles with combat fabber support. Will probably want to start throwing in some bluehawks for a little extra long range damage and mobile anti-orbital

Shellers fill this role very well themselves too.

For a planet invasion, you need lots of spinners because you should expect patrolling air units (both T1 and T2). This is usually a top priority. I'd also advise focusing on the following units to give you ground dominance, in descending order of priority:

1. Shellers. They outrange pretty much all other ground units, and deal lots of splash damage. Defending armies will often contain massed T1 units (because large T1 armies often get built early on in the game and then sit unused as the orbital phase gets under way) which means shellers are very effective in a teleporter assault. Their range also allows you to knock out ground defences with relative ease. Extremely effective.

2. Gil-Es (the T2 sniper bot). In large masses they deal more damage than any other unit. Base defences, factories, crucial infrastructure (mex, pgens, etc.), commanders, T2 units, they all melt in the face of massed Gil-E shots. They shoot through walls and outrange all ground defences except Holkins and Catapults, so they are a great choice if you think you'll be facing hardened defences, lots of structures (which can soak up damage quite easily), or tough unit blobs (like vanguards). Extremely effective.

3. Vanguards. They add lots and lots of hitpoints to your blobs, and god help your enemy if you get them close to his units or his base. Even if they don't make it into the enemy lines, they will buy your spinners/shellers/Gil-Es time to do their damage. Also very good for tanking damage from catapults and T2 air attacks. Highly effective.

4. Bolos (Ants), mixed with more spinners. In the late game (when planet invasions are a big thing) they're just a fodder unit, but they add hitpoints and firepower to your blobs and are cheap enough for you to be able to get masses of them. They do plenty of damage in numbers; just make sure to mix in extra spinners to keep the bombers off them. Do remember though: in the time that a T1 unit moves through a teleporter, a T2 unit could have gone through instead. If all you're sending is T1 tanks while your vanguards and shellers mill around waiting to fight, you need some more teleporters. Moderately effective.

The best way to invade, though, is to combine portals and unit cannons together (and nukes, and SXX lasers, and avengers - anything that will help you get that foothold). Use your unit cannons firing a mix of spinners and slammers to secure a landing zone; mix in either combat fabbers or engineers with the units you fire and use them to build multiple teleporters. Using more than one teleporter at a time allows you to get a critical mass of units into the fight that much quicker, meaning that you're less likely to have your units stream in to their deaths two or three at a time. Think: one hard crack with a hammer, not several small pinpricks or a steady push. Don't be afraid of building up your forces to attack with overwhelming force, so long as you feel confident you can defend in the meantime. Scout, and try to deny your opponent scouting information in return. Scout with advanced orbital radars (more than one!) and any other tool you have at your disposal. You are much more likely to win if you can find a weakness in an enemy's orbital defences and know what to expect from their defences in advance.

^^^^^

Just to add about the gil e... They also have the ability to shoot down tactical missiles, so they are essential if your opponent has lots of catapults defending their base.

A lot of players underestimate the power of the boom bots in late game. Just because you have jumped to orbital and t2 doesn't mean that you shouldn't be pumping out more t1 factories. Both t1 and t2 vehicles get utter rekt by booms

Absolutely true. Both Dox and Booms have a crucial advantage in movement speed over all the other T2 units (Dox are very good for flanking and destroying groups of Gil-Es and shellers, for example). Boom bots are also a very good anti-teleporter unit because they are cheap, and in large numbers can overwhelm an assault force and blow up a teleporter in seconds. And Booms also melt commanders, provided you can catch them!

I should also add - pure anecdote, but a nice one - that in a recent brutal, ten-planet free-for-all I was able to use the terrain features to get my foothold. My last remaining opponent had a fairly well-defended lava planet, and had pushed back a couple of unit cannon volleys using heavy T2 air and swarms of slammers. A lot of my incoming units had died to umbrella fire, but because my opponent's entire army was guarding the area that was now umbrella-free, I needed a new opening (my string of thirty nukes hadn't finished, and I wanted the game to end). I found a spot on the opposite side of the planet that was clearly pathable, but sandwiched in between three lava mountains which blocked umbrella placement. My entire unit cannon volley landed (over a hundred units), and proceeded to shred his base. I didn't even need the teleporters, in the end...

That is a good reason the unit cannon contributes. By the way, You should have let the nukes finished, then intentionally area attacked the planet. Then recorded it and made an animated GIF out of it.

Damn, I knew I was making a mistake somewhere.

lol boombots, vanguards and infernos will slaughter them by the hundreds before they can explode

Not entirely true. Infernos yes, but vanguards are actually quite vulnerable between their shots. Also I should point out that units only come out of ONE side of a gate. Attack from the other side and your boom bots can often destroy the gate without ever coming near to infernos or vanguards.

that's why I usually immediately put a line of infernos on the other side... and also why I put engineers through after my army, to wall the gate on 3 sides and build AA

If you have time to do that - you've probably already succeeded. Getting flak up is handy against air swarms, but while building walls to protect a gate isn't a complete waste of time it's nowhere near as good as having more gates. They are dirt cheap and have tons of HP.

Protecting your gates from all sides is defos useful, but this doesn't change the fact that if you have boom bots you have a good chance of finding an opening in which to take the gate down - even if the best time to do so is just before the gate is linked up, or while it's being built. If you don't use boom bots, you have to win in an even fight, and I'd prefer not to offer the player with a large T2 vehicle army an even fight, thanks.