TL;DR: Micro: Dive UNDERNEATH the shields and focus the outlaws. Macro: The only method he has to force an engagement is to barrel into your defenses. Thuglaw is good against defenses, but defenses + army should win. If he refuses to engage, just raid his eco with ravagers.Yeah Leveler does splash to the thug as well as full damage to the shield, but this is not actually that great against a tight thuglaw ball because usually (say if it were a hermit ball) ALL the units in the ball would take damage. So ironically Leveler is better vs individual thugs than groups.
The exception is when you dive the leveler right into the middle of the pack, under the shields. This is also really good with ravagers. You want to beat the crap out of thuglaw (Especially in a composition with fewer outlaws than thugs, which is typical), dive under his shields so that your barrels are inside the outlaws hitvolume. The shields wont help then. Note that this is suicidal, retreating with the slow is hard, so you want to go all in, but it is by far my favourite way of dealing with thuglaw.
If he has a more outlaw heavy composition, his shields will go down easier. Get them down, then focus the outlaws. Outlaws are only a problem for a ravager or leveler if the outlaw is under a shield. To get the shields down I wouldn't recommend artillery or slashers to drain shields so early in the game unless you can use it on enemy defenses from inside your own. The best way is to wait until he engages at your defenses. Thuglaw is great against static defense but the extra DPS you have should be enough to take out his shields and allow you to focus the outlaws down. If he declines to engage you at your defenses, use your superiority mobility to hit him elsewhere, then when he goes into your defense dive him from behind. Remember that as vehicles you always have control over where the engagement takes place and the only way he can force it is to attack your defenses.
The thing about shields is (unless you dive under the shield or use AoE) you NEED to have enough DPS to turn EVERY shield red, once you do that the units start dropping like flies (especially to leveler DPS), but before you do that you've done no permanent damage. This is the problem people have with shielballs that makes them feel so invincible- when you go in, you have to go ALL in. You cannot trade just a unit here and there.
If an enemy is really barrelling down your throat with this composition and you MUST stop him, walk your commander into him and blow up. Shields don't stop AoE. This works best with a jumpycom. Ensure you can secure the wrecks and ideally don't have an e-cell.
Correct use of your basic unit set is enough to win this matchup, but yes, Domi is the absolute hardcounter. Try and catch him while he is still moving towards your base (radar or your superior scouting capacities) and position the domi to intercept him. Turn it around and face it AWAY from him. If he comes towards you, just retreat it. Yes focus the outlaws (set target, NOT attack order, you have to keep retreating), if you get just one you'll prettymuch wipe out his whole pack- but getting any unit is good, so thugs are fine too (because of the stacking nature of shields and their otherwise immunity to chipping damage). If he retreats from you? You don't have to chase. Since you are faster you can just move parallel to him to intercept him wherever he goes, and a parallel facing should give you enough time to get away if he barrels down on you. This is micro'ing with turning circles 101: you want the unit to already be facing close to the direction you want it to go before it needs to go that way.
Yes this is a high micro strategy, and yes it can easily foul up if you mismicro. But it's the hardcounter, the unit that can destroy the whole pack and take 0 losses (Potentially it can actually GET you more units). If that's what your looking for, perfect your domi micro. But I'd just say practice your fundamentals with ravager/leveler and you'll be fine.
B131543 2 on Intersection_v2This map is veh-viable, but there are a lot of bot-only slopes, so it's no cometcatcher. I will admit though that I primarily won because I rushed scorchers and took out several starting mexes while taking no raiding myself, but you can see a lot of correct usage of units and micro against a thuglaw composition.
