Colonel

I don't understand the purpose of the colonel. I like his ability to build structures while on the front lines. The ability to target almost anything is a nice perk too.

However, couldn't this same concept be done by building a few t2 fabricators and sending an army along with them? The colonel doesn't seem to hold up well against T2 units so his ability to do damage is limited to T1 armies. As a result, this limits the colonel's use to only a fabricator.

Its ability to be used as a decoy is.... ehhh. You aren't fooling anyone with them.

How do you use this unit? When is a good time to use this unit?

They are a jack of all trades.

Use them in a hostile landing along side an army and use them to build stuff while under fire, like factories and defences.

They are much harder to snipe like most fabbers, and so can easily set up flak cannons to support a teleporter invasion.

A small blob of them can counter just about anything short of a titan, building stuff to counter what they cannot face alone.

I think their main purpose in building fast in enemy planets where normal builders would just get destroyed.

They target all units but orbital, have a lot of health, have the best build rate and efficiency in the game (only tied with T2 naval fabbers) and have access to a lot of awesome buildings (holkins, catapults, triple laser towers, flak, teleporters, etc) that they can build while fighting. Also they can reclaim wreckage and their attack has AoE, which is a big deal vs t1 air.

I did not notice that. That is pretty nice.

Good point about surviving a snipe.

Getting a blob of them is a challenge, unless you have eco to splurge on them. This is probably why I lose with them. I treat them as an actual unit and send them to the front lines when they should be more for certain situations. Sadly, you most likely need 3 of them to actually be effective which are 7k a piece. That's a lot of metal to spend if your eco isn't large enough to support this type of unit.

More useful in planet to planet games.

same thing as a colonel's purpose irl, except they control planets as opposed to bases.


depends on your definition of a base.

I use them as front-line proxy-makers. They are tough, have very high dps, and have a massive build-rate, making them idle for setting up front-line positions

You can 1v1 a com with them and win!

really? uber cannon should help right?

After check the PADB, now I believe it.
http://pa-db.com/compare?cat2=builders&u1=imperial_able&u2=bot_support_commander

The DPS of commander is 160, but the DPS or Colonel is 400.
Though the commander has higher HP, I think the Colonel can still win.

The colonel also has around 2.5x the build power of the commander, it can build triple laser towers while fighting which is something the comm can't really deal with.

I personally see that as an issue. Only titans should be able to successfully 1v1 a commander.

No uber cannon, no income, cost 7000 metal, take ages to build, are late game units.

Can't disagree more, given the above

Almost everything tier 2 can either duel or snipe very quickly a commander. Not to mention artillery, laser turrets or orbital units. The comm is really vulnerable in this game.

Well, not a single unit, right? Excluding orbital and the manhattan. Even a hornet will get shot down by com's aa, right?

Actually manhattan does not kill a comm since a previus patch.

Every unit that outranges the Commander (holkins, leviathan for example) kills him for free.

Kaiju can kite the commander to death. Hornet has more range and can kite the comm to death. Stingray can kite the comm to death. Sheller and Gil-E can kite him to death too. Angel can't kill the comm but comm also can't kill it.

A vanguard can 1v1 a commander if you don't micro the commander properly. If you micro a Wrym with the assist command and your opponent doesn't micro his commander you can 1v1 the comm.

Kraken can kill the commander without even getting shot if the comm is not underwater.

A single advanced torpedo launcher can 1v1 a comm.

Even a single Orca can 1v1 a commander if he's not underwater by kiting him.

Oh

I don't agree with that, and there's no real way to fix that. If we did, it would contradict UBER's wish for the commander being a king, not a queen, (chess) like it was in supcom. The com really should be able to fend for itself.

The ubercannon is still pretty worthless. I want it to be good like the D-Gun it would fix over half the problems in this topic.

Oh, this depends heavily on what your definition of a problem is.

Actually the strength of the commander has to be balanced out.
* The Commander must be powerful enough to repel early rushes. Otherwise everybody would just build d few doxs an try to roflstomp the enemy in the first 3 minutes. Yes, you have 3 minutes plus travel time as well to build up forces, but the commander gives this whole setup a certain kind of stability in making you not so much dependent on the forces you build in the first 3 minutes.
* The Commander must not be to powerful to kill forces in the later game to easily. If your commander would be able to annihilate a complete base after the 4 minute mark, you just could walk your commander in the enemy base to wreck it. The thing you see in comboxing is exactly this effect, because the travel time between the opponents are so small.

Uber Cannon should be unlimited fire, and HUGE effect, but require a ridiculous amount of power to operate. No power? No Uber Cannon. Take out your enemy's power to stop their commander. No more cheesy snipes.