Cheese

Cheese strategies are strategies that can be described as high-risk and high-reward. These typically rely on winning hard and winning early. Below we will detail some of the finest cheese known to lobster-kind.
Disclaimer: Some of these are quite bad strategies, but will probably sometimes work nonetheless.

On the use of commanders

A good rush will often include your commander. In the early parts of the game, this unit represents the majority of your combat strength. Most rushes just utilize the commander as a support unit that fills in a role that you need. However, some cheese strategies utilize the commander as a centerpiece of the strategy.

The strategies

Fencer rush

Plop Rover Assembly, and put fencers on repeat queue. Once you have made 2 to 3, it is time to start moving towards your opponent. Once your Commander builds the starting mexes/energy move it towards the opponents base as well. Once you get to your opponent's base and see what they have been up to, choose an appropriate comm morph option. Continue streaming fencers across the map. When you have a critical mass of fencers you can just move in and kill them. But don't wait too long! If they get up significant defense you could end up losing.

• Rocket launcher is the best morph to get if they try to counter you with skirmishers.
• Riot cannon if they build lots of low-hp raiders.
• Heat ray is good if they try to make heavies.

Defending against it

A well-executed Fencer rush is extremely difficult to stop with conventional units. The natural counter to Fencers in the face of assault units is likely to be stopped by the enemy commander. Using your own commander is typically also a mistake because the enemy will be upgraded for combat and will have the benefit of fire support from their Fencers.

The best answer is to drop everything and rush a Stinger. Having sacrificed all their economy, the opponent is likely to not have any economy, at most one mex. If you succeed in building a Stinger, they will have their zero mexes against your three, and no way to reasonably expand. After this, you can proceed to counter their contain with more conventional approaches.

Typically, a Fencer rush will also see the enemy factory left entirely defenceless - after all, each bit of metal spent on defence for your enemy is one not spent assisting in the actual rush. Sneaking away a single raider will usually suffice to kill this factory and prevent Fencer reinforcements or sneak expansion.

Reaver rush

Much like the fencer rush.

1. Plop Cloaky Bot Factory and take 1 mex.
2. Make Reavers on repeat queue.
3. Move out with your comm and have reavers rally to it.

This rush is more time sensitive, and requires that you hit sooner than a fencer rush. Reavers are a bit faster than your comm so they will catch up to it.

Ogre rush

The Ogre is probably the most robust riot unit in the game, with high DPS and HP. It can be quite difficult to stop earlygame, especially if it is unscouted. The ogre is capable of killing commanders by itself and it has splash damage, making it quite effective against the raiders people typically build as well. This rush is time sensitive, as if they scout you they can throw up lots of light defense turrets and hold it off.

1. Plop the Tank Foundry.
2. Queue up an ogre, set the rally point to your opponents base.
3. Assist the factory with your commander.

This rush is especially effective against factories with no skirmishers, like HT or rovers. Factories with awkward skirmishers like spider may struggle to deal with it as well, but HT vs spider is a rare match-up anyways.

Defending against it

The best defense against any cheese is scouting, and this is true here. Build your lightest raider and send it to your opponent's base. Since the Ogre is an expensive unit, by the time your raider gets there it should still see the Ogre in the factory being built, or just as it moves out. Since the opponent has commited quite a bit of resources to this rush you can affort to just spam lots of LLTs and the occasional Picket to hold it off. If your factory has a skirmisher, that would be a good choice to make as well.

While Rovers don't have any normal skirmishers, being able to produce a Dominatrix by the time the Ogre hits you turns the cheese upside down, as the Dominatrix will easily capture the Ogre, making it your enemy's problem now.

Raider rush

These types of rushes are distinct from the others in that they don't bring along the commander, and rely on overwhelming your opponent with an unexpected raider force. Below are listed some of the raiders that are most effective at rushing.

Flea rush

Plop Spider Factory and build your initial 500 metal into fleas. Send your first two out to scout. Once you get your flea swarm you can either attack the opponents base, or their commander. If their commander morphed to a splash damage weapon this will not work, but it should lead to a dead commander if the commander is alone and un-morphed. Alternatively, if they only built like 1 Picket or Lotus in their base and all their units are gone, you are able to quickly kill the defensive turrets and possibly win the game by killing all their eco structures and factory. You need to be careful with your fleas though, the death explosions from most buildings can instantly kill them. Obviously, this strategy fails if they are not very greedy and bother to build some raiders.

Glaive/Bandit rush

They maneuver around defenses and take out constructors, factories, and economic structures.