I was playing today and I got sniped by T2 air half way through the game. As the game progressed I saw someone put their commander into orbit and surround it with avengers... Is this a viable strategy? I suppose I need to invest in some AA next time hah
Hey, just a quick note - you're posting in the German General Discussion board, so you'll probably get less replies than over on the english forum. Thread has been moved, so all is well. That being said, "parking" a commander in orbit with several hundred Avengers won't protect you from ground attacks (Umbrellas), from a dedicated attack (i.e. 50-100 Avengers suciding in an attempt to snipe the transport carrying the commander), or from a planet smashing, which will kill all orbital units as well.
It is technically generally bad. An orbital-deepspace radar will spot it anywhere in the starsystem if it is in orbit, it will not spot it infinitely if it is grounded. If it spots it on a different planet, the player can move hundreds of avengers transfer planets right onto the commander's spot. So, you would have to keep the commander in random patrol in orbit, which is still possible to try to guess a landing and push the commander to death or drop several pockets of avengers. Then there is the chance where the enemy can get barely underneath and errect an umbrella. Generally, it is as reliable, as keeping a commander jumping between orbital bodies is, or keeping a commander deep in the water.
In my opinion you need to keep an eye on your commander, keep him moving and working and just be aware of whats going on. Map Control and Intel pretty much assures this. Meiner Meinung nach müssen Sie ein Auge auf Ihr Kommandeur zu halten, halten ihn in Bewegung und arbeiten und nur bewusst, was los ist. Map Control und Intel ziemlich sichert diese.
IMO, the safest spot for your commander would be queued to move through an inactive teleporter (build the teleporter, select the comm, and right click the teleporter). That way, if anything bad starts heading for your comm, you can select the teleporter (or use a hotkey for it), then right click another teleporter a safe distance away. The result is that your comm will quickly head through the teleporter, avoiding whatever threat was bearing down on it.
Always have the Commander building. I put him in the center of my base and have fighters patrolling the base. If I know my opponent is going heavy air (since I've been scouting), I'll put up Flak. The best anti-air defense is to have a bunch of fighters on area patrol around your base. I pretty much always have a few factories building fighters for the entirety of the match. Great defense, and great for scouting. And, since I've been scouting, I'll build anti-nukes if the game goes on too long and he's going for a nuke, and Umbrellas if orbital is in play.
You act like you, me, especially me, zaphod, me, marshall, me, burntcustard, me, especially I, do not lose commanders occasionally when building on an ever re-shaping base on the accidental edge of our base. At the very least, I think from Youtube I have seen it happen at least once to everyone. Having your commander queued to teleporter often doesn't react fast enough to air. Queueing the teleporter to use itself and having 2 linked all the time, does confuse enemies where to attack, as the commander will patrol back and forth and an improper timed attack denies commander access. That is, if discussing commander safety at the cost of his build efficiency, which one can be higher in eco not to care.
T2 Air is bound to be used for sniping this build since it fires from beyond AA range. I do not recommend leaving the Commander floating in orbit, as a concerted Avenger attack will kill you, particularly if they 'land' right next to your Commander. Your best bet is to have a few T1 Air Factories constantly making T1 Fighters. Air is much more balanced now, so you needn't (and shouldn't) focus entirely on Air. If you have a few dozen Fighters you can make your enemy regret investing so much in those T2 Bombers. Make sure your base has T1 AA/Flak/Umbrellas, and your armies have AA and you'll be fine ^^
Anybody else fing it a bit silly that the deep space radar can pick up units across the entire system? Like in transit if fine, and around the entire planet you are on is...ok ish. But around other planets too? That's a bit powerful for a single unit isn't it?
Sometimes I'll put an advanced air factory making hummingbirds on loop, and give it a small patrol area. After there are about 50 hummingbirds there, I'll increase the patrol size to cover my entire base. I would suggest making a very large patrol area, filled with scouts. Their vision range is massive and you only need about ten to cover half of a radius 500 planet.
There's only one safe place for a commander: In constant transit. Queue up dozens of transfers in advance and the time window for sniping the com is in the range of milliseconds. The Astreus actually even has a good chance of leaving orbit before the Avenger projectiles impact.
