constructors and artillery

constructors, or cons, are an important but understated, and underupilized unit in ZK

idaly you should have 1 con for evry 5 units that you build

the reason being is that a con can repair units when damaged, reclaim metal, build defences, teraform, make mex and radars, and provide valuble suport to your units

and army without cons can not retreat or hold ground effectively



likewise artillery is a vital component of an army, where cons allow you to take and hold ground, artillery allows you to destroy the enemy defences, and attak to take more ground

the interaction between cons and artillery is fairly simbiotic, the artillery destroys the enemy, while the constructors build to protect the artillery

both form the most vital parts of an army, if you wish to attak effectively

quote: You're trolling, right?

I think he's just too used to 10v10 noobteamgames

Anyway,

quote: the artillery destroys the enemy, while the constructors build to protect the artillery

You should be banned for encouraging noobs to make more porc/arty :P

But ddab does have a point. Keeping cons at the front works pretty well. But it is easy to over do. Cons aren't cheap you know; 140-250 metal that isn't sooting can be a serious handicap vs someone who did make 140-250 of shooty stuff.

You'd be right if ZK artillery wasn't deliberately weak and expensive. Especially since your 5:1 ratio would actually be a 3:1 cost ratio.

I spam artillery *a lot*. Probably too much. I'm a big fan of hovers. But even then I try to keep my metal consumption on arty at 10% of my combat units. Artillery is like Stingers - you have one to draw the enemy out and deny area. The only fac you want more than one artillery units in your mix is the Cloakies, and that's only because Hammers are so low-weight that they should be used in pairs or triplets.

Especially since your artillery should be the ones that survive the most, since they should never see combat, including artillery in your regular repeat-list will end up with you building up too much arty (same goes for AA). Regular repeat-list for me includes my main combat-force and my cons (and I often get too many cons, but I'm a reclaim/prospecting nut), where arty and AA are alt-click builds as needed.

ive found that artillery heavy players are probably the hardest to difectly attak, and defend against

artillery is valid as area denial, but artillery as DOT/supression works extremly well too, it forces the enemy to attack you before they are ready, usualy with units that have already takes some damage, against your own units, and LLT that are at full health (thats what cons are for)

ofcourse, this requires that you maintain at least equal numbers of front line units as your enemy has (this can be achived with repair, and liberal use of LLT/MT where neede)

quote: ofcourse, this requires that you maintain at least equal numbers of front line units as your enemy has (this can be achived with repair, and liberal use of LLT/MT where neede)

That kinda reads like "hey, you already won, but you decide to troll opponent with llt and hammers".

Liberal use of llt will actually eat into your frontline unit potential, and so will artillery. Either you get to kill of enemies by supreme tactical prowess to get that extra frontline hardware, or they just suck at production.

Same tactical prowess applied to 50% increase in your mobile mass, in such scenario, would be a couple times more efficient.

quote: i never make arty in 1v1,

Fine, let's try 2x2? 3x3?

Any nubfight over 4x4 will not be accepted as evidence, because:
- hard to define individual contribution to victory
- nubs can't play for shit
- claustrophobic map space

Qualities for acceptable evidence:
- size up to 3x3
- minimal elo 1600 for all players involved

It certainly works well enough in slower multi player games. We could set up "The Learn Easy but Effective Tactics" thread. (the LEET thread)

thats the point im not really intrested in proving that this is the best strategy, its not, i never said it was.

the best strategys are hellish to micro and will allways kill the enemy by 5 minutes, but they are no fun

IK reporting, just here to remind us all that artillery is for queers