If they don't have ants should you bother?

The current ground meta favours hordes of Ants, primarily because they outrange Doxs so with enough of them they simply beat them the Doxs with minimal casualties.

In a FFA things get a little trickier, people tend to go more defensive. In my view Doxs do better against defences than Ants do, which just slowly trek in, die, get stuck on the wreckage of one another, etc. Eventually there'll come a point where ground isn't going to cut it, but that comes later.

My question is whether Doxs are the better force to mass in a FFA (or indeed any mode) where opponents aren't massing Ants. It seems that their speed, ability to contain and superiority at overwhelming small defensive points means you're going to do better in a FFA with them than you will Ants until you hit the Hornets, Holkins and nukes phase.

ive had good luck using ants as a shield for my doxs (ill explain) i treat bots as infantry, i send my ants out first then select my doxs to support (support command) my ants, since the ant is slower the doxs will match there speed but stay behind them in turn providing protection from incoming fire. im no expert but have made it deep into enemy territory using this play style.

mix matching seems to be where its at, but remember, always select to support the slowest units in your group or they wont stay together. hope this helps.

I say yes.

Even so, there is no answer to this. Games and strategies dictate unique combos.

I use combos of units.

If I was playing someone who was using only bots, I'd build more bots than normal. But I'd still build Ants. I'd use Ants to assault the enemy base, and their bots wouldn't be able to do much. I'd then use my bots to defend against their raiding bots, and Ants to defend against their primary attacks.

IMO, if your opponent only uses one strategy (all ants/all bots/all nuke/all air/all naval) then they'll lose. Even with our currently small unit roster, PA is all about diversity. Everything can be countered by something. So having a diverse army is the best way to beat your opponent.