LABs for early raiding

[Flynn]

I seriously question the benefits of early raiding with LABs. It is far simpler to make 3 engies then 2 tanks and 1 scout to defend the engies from the other player's LABs then you can take those tanks to raid the other player's engies knowning that he won't have anything to defend his engies with because he chose to go on an early raid with LABs instead. Using LABs takes too much micro which could be spent on expanding.

[dotswarlock]

I tend to do the same; going straight for tanks. I'm just not good enough to go for light assault bots just yet.

[CrayzyNath]

The advantage of LABs: They are cheap, they are fast, they have a good dps.
The cons: Tanks.

In the early game you want some fast units to get scouting information and kill lonely engies to stop you enemy from expanding. If you send a scout with your LAB you can spot if the engies are guarded or not. If they are not, kill them, if they are, run away. Its simple.

You shouldn't build many LABs, but thats plain. But in the first 2-3 minutes the loose of some engies can swing the game into your favor straight away. If you dont kill anything but get scout-info its good too. If you LABs get destroyed by the ACU its great, because you know where he is. If your LABs get destroyed by enemy LABs or tanks you know, that you dont have to worry about getting raided because he used his units defensiv.

And all that knowledge for just 35 mass!

Of course, to defend your engies tanks are better. But raiding is important not only to kill stuff, but also getting early scouting-information.

[Petricpwnz]

Don't know what are you talking about here, guys. ~75% of my LAB's are successfull at killing enemy's engies, sometimes they just win me a game. Your enemy simply can't get enough tanks to defend every point on the map, use LABs to overwhelm your enemies. Just don't build lots of engies first, try to get LABs as early as possible. And of course they require micro, but that's up to you.

[ColonelSheppard]

just build a scout and a LAB as 3th/4th unit

- send to a point where you expect an engy
--> one slow bilp = engy -> kill
--> one slightly faster bilp = tank -> retreat
--> one very fast and one fast = LAB + scout -> send scout in front of the LAB and prepare for micro
--> one slow and one closing the gap and falling back again -> engy + lab, keep out of the buildrange of the engy, prepare for micro
--> two slow, one slightly behind = tank + engy, retreat, or try to kill the first bilp fast and retreat after that

[Flynn]

The last 6 games I have tried raiding with LABs, the last 6 games I have lost. LABs seem like a waste of time to me

[ZaphodX]

Then you didn't pay enough attention, didn't send them to the right places and didn't micro them well. Play a good player and watch how they screw over your BO with early bot raiding.

[MadStork]

foregoing raiding and going straight to defending tanks is a perfectly viable strategy. You should go with what fits your style. But labs are cheap and picking off a single expanding engie pays for your lab many times over. It is often unsuccessful, but is a low-risk high-reward strategy. You should at least do it occasionally to practice with the micro. The more strategies and tactics you have in your arsenal the better off you are in the long run.

[dotswarlock]

What is recommended for the Seraphim T1 combat scout? They can match labs for speed, but lack the firepower. Send 3 of them at a time?

[ColonelSheppard]

they are scouts with high dps, no LABs
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