How to: Battle of Thermopylae - playing Cybran

[Stratocaster]

Battle of Thermopylae, a map fashioned after the battle where 300 Spartans held off a vast numbers of Persians, is a newbie favorite, since it allows you to get more "intimate" with land units, defensive structures, and building up an economy, all while working with your team, as it's not a map where you can win alone vs the entire enemy team. In this How-to, I've attached a replay in which I demonstrate my style of handling eco, with minimal input, all the while taking advantage of Cybran's strengths, such as their stealth, their tactical missiles (unique as they have "bomblets" that emerge when the missile is shot down), their T3 mobile artillery (fast reload and wide splash), and their T3 vision tower (Cybran exclusive) in an actual game vs players who are veterans on this map.

Useful things to note:

- I change my units fire mode to ground attack (change using the [ key), and target the ground and rely on splash damage and slight inaccuracy (firing randomness) to destroy units around the targeted area.
- Assisting a teched up factory and using another T1 factory to build engineers, solely for assisting, which is more efficient than engineering stations.
- I self-destruct and reclaim some units, if I find their usefulness has ended.

I was a bit unorthodox, as I kept my start area as basic as can be, opting to build my base near the front line. You don't have to do this, but I find it a bit more efficient, due to having everything you need closer to where you need it.

Summed up, this is strategy. If you played this map before, you will know to expect T2 Point Defense from the enemy team, and also from your own team. You also may expect T3 Point Defenses some time after. A typical person counters an unit with the equivalent unit and rely on unit control and unit stats to win. I chose to pick the wiser counters.

- Counter T2 Point Defenses with multiple T2 mobile missile launchers and mobile stealth.
- Counter T3 Point Defenses with multiple T3 mobile artillery, mobile stealth, and T2 shields (and reliance on teammate).
- Counter stealth, gain intel that lets you make wiser decisions and better target selection, with a T3 vision tower.
- Build an assault force once the way is clear and make an omni sensor to give intel to push deeper and make use of long range weapons.

All the while, putting eco build-up on "auto", by queuing up a long sequence of orders.

Hopefully this helps teaches newbies some of the strengths of Cybran and highlights the use of strategy, over simply "matching up" with the enemy. Beware that this is not a fool proof strategy that will win you Thermo games by simply copying it--the efficiency in which I executed it got out the units in a short amount of time, which I think was barely sufficient to pull off the strategy, and I was lucky to have a teammate that handled shields and point defenses well enough. It's the concepts and use of Cybran strengths, and how to use them in a real game, that I hope people learn from this. If there's just one thing you do as Cybran on this map, it should be to make a vision tower, in a spot where it allows your team to see what the enemy is doing.

[ColonelSheppard]

in an actual game vs players who are veterans on this map.

the words: "actual game" and "veterans" do defenitly not fit thermo

- I change my units fire mode to ground attack (change using the [ key), and target the ground and rely on splash damage and slight inaccuracy (firing randomness) to destroy units around the targeted area.
- Assisting a teched up factory and using another T1 factory to build engineers, solely for assisting, which is more efficient than engineering stations.
- I self-destruct and reclaim some units, if I find their usefulness has ended.
- Counter T2 Point Defenses with multiple T2 mobile missile launchers and mobile stealth.
- Counter T3 Point Defenses with multiple T3 mobile artillery, mobile stealth, and T2 shields (and reliance on teammate).
- Counter stealth, gain intel that lets you make wiser decisions and better target selection, with a T3 vision tower.
- Build an assault force once the way is clear and make an omni sensor to give intel to push deeper and make use of long range weapons.

yes, this is true on every map and it's a good tip for very new players, however it is not special at thermo or for Cybran
however i would consider this more or less logical
+ there is not use for MML on thremo at all, you can just rush t3 and if you rushed t3 you can probably just rush fatty

I was a bit unorthodox, as I kept my start area as basic as can be, opting to build my base near the front line. You don't have to do this, but I find it a bit more efficient, due to having everything you need closer to where you need it.

doesnt really matter but ok

Conclusion:

Thermo might be a chilled fun from time to time, but if you are good at othermaps you will most likely rape every thermo only player (thats my experiences from one Thermo game per month)
Cybran has one cool thing and thats the soothsayer (you know the big tower with tons of vison), thats the reason why Cybran is good thing to have in your team (remember: you can switch engeneers around as you want)
Later it is a battle of GC, Chicken and Fattys and tons of ravangers.
Again: no offence against thermo player, big fat t4 battles are fun but you should not try to learn the game by playing thremo, and if you learned the game you dont have to learn thermo xD

greetings Sheppard

[GallantDragon]

tl;dr

There's very little strategy to Thermo. It's like a Starcraft game; there's an optimal strategy, and whoever clicks the slowest looses.