Countering the T1 bomber

[TA4Life]

We should make a tutorial for people that would allow them to counter T1 bomber. Please put your suggestions into this thread.

Let's assume we are going land first(if air first then it is just a bomber vs bomber madness)

The most important thing is to detect the bomber as early as possible. Going scout first or second is a must unless it is a 20x20 map.

Observe possible approaches into your base(most likely a straight line between the starting points, unless there are civs)

Send the scout along the most likely approach, if bomber detected make 2-3 flak and put them between your base and the bomber. This will likely kill it on the first approach. Be ready to dodge with engies, should be easy given that you will see the exact flying direction of the bomber.

To take advantage of the player going first bomber on you make a few LABs after the flak and send them to intercept engies expanding from the enemy's base. Remember that now you can send them in alone since they won't have to face tanks. As long as you avoid the ACU with your LABs you will get a huge advantage in terms of map control and eco.

Your build will look like this:
scout, engie, engie,(bomber detected), flak flak, flak, LAB, LAB, LAB,scout, engies

You may not have too many engies early on, but you will have a lot more once your LABs get their job done.

You can also choose to keep your acu in the base to build structures a little longer than usual to compensate(probably depends on the particular map however)

DODGING bombs with engies: try to move in the direction of the approaching bomber, in many cases this will actually cause the bomber to not drop the bomb. As soon as you hear the sound of the bomb dropping, change direction by 180 degrees. Keep your engies moving at all times.

NEVER build early pgens right next to eachother

Looking forward to other thoughts.

[Zock]

That are a lot helpfull tips.

Additional:

-Dont send your scout too far away. You will need it to see what target the bomber will choose and when you have to micro. Try to keep the bomber in your scouts range once you spottet it. You dont have to build the scout as first, you can make up to 2 engies before. But you can see the bomber earlier as sooner you make the scout. I recommend one engy, because you can get your 4 start mex earlier when the commander builds 3 and the engy the last one.

-If you have no AA and the bomber managed to get vet (ie. by killing your AA), dont be afraid to make a stationary AA turrent if you can build it fast (enough storage and maybe engies to assist).

-Bomber first players often have low energy and won't make air after the bomber for a while. Go second air and get easy aircontrol.

-If you don't see the bomber in radar, give shifted zigg-zagg move orders for your engies and they will dodge very likley.

-You can risk to move with one or two early labs into the enemy base, the commander will propably go to get the hydro or something else.

[SJAndrew]

My advice:

1) never build adjacent pgens - build them diagonally or checkered
2) scatter your engineers once the bomber is detected - micro them to flee in a star pattern as opposed to haing them all flee in the same direction. You opponent will target a group of engineers or a group of adjacent pgens. If you flee your engineers in different directions, then the most he can get is one per pass.
3) Understand that the cost of his t1 bomber is ground - as funk wrote, the second you see the early t1 bomber, your lab's should be raping your opponent's engineers
4) If the bomber goes after a unit, try to hug a terrain change (like a hill). This will cause the bomber (a lot of times) to disengage and make another pass
5) t1 mobile aa is more effective (in your base) at countering a bomber than interceptors (for a couple of reasons - you need not have an air factory and his interceptors cannot counter archers).


and most importantly

6) expect early t1 bombers

#6 is really they key. With the influx if new GPG players, early t1 bombers are new for us. Once you realize that they're now commonplace, they're counterable in a myriad of ways as referenced above

[Tiptushi]

Good points allready mentioned, 1 more for practise point of view:

Try going bomber first yourself, this way you experience weaknesses of the air first build (e-stall, engies vulnerable for LABs, bombers also need alot of babysitting cause cant usually queue its targets) and can abuse them better if youre playing land vs air.

[ExamplePrime]

Its things like this that make you realise that you have gotten decent at the game

I can't remember the last time I had a problem with t1 bomber rush, whenever I see it these days Im just delighted the enemy has given me an advantage over them

[Pavese]

Its things like this that make you realise that you have gotten decent at the game

I can't remember the last time I had a problem with t1 bomber rush, whenever I see it these days Im just delighted the enemy has given me an advantage over them

A Bomber first is not realy a setback. It delays a safe expansion about 30 secs. Big advantage. Plus you can still argue if someone that lost one or two engis and was forced to build 2-3 AAs will put a LAB harass on you. So you can probably expand, no matter what. And as seraphim, your Airfactory will build engis even faster then everything else in the game, so you dont even waste time on that front


FA is a game played by a few idealists that stuck with the game. It is not Starcraft Grandmaster league where little things would make a big diffrence in the overall picture. And if it where: bomberfirst is like TvZ where T has a cheap harass that doesn't realy set him back, but can win him the game.


The whole idea of building 2 AAs blindly because i might stumble over a bomberfirst makes me facepalm. You're waiting for a bomber, a bomber that might come. You know where you hope this bomber will come, but you don't know for sure.

[Isen]

bomber counter, failed after of it, but i think it was countered