Anti-Harbie-Rush Strategies.

[Kalvirox]

So. Recently EVERYONE who plays aeon, harbie rushes.

Normally, these hit t3 land at approximately 13:30. Normally you can just GunCom t2 spam all in them and kill the HQ/commander and win that way. This works especially well when your opponent goes t3 land off pure t1 power, hence not doing the rush effectively. Sometimes they do it properly and it can be a bit trickier especially if your opponent has double gun or starts building t2 PD.. Though I have found that if you hit the timing properly t2 PD is not really a problem either.

However. These 'big maps', with lots of mass (Like badlands.. TR) make the harbie rush SUPER effective..
Like, it hits at 10 mins (when done properly) and there is very little you can do about it. Use Guncom and what little you have to defend. But then they drop harbies, kill expansions, out eco, whatever... and you die a painful and horrible death.

I tried an air-play strategy... But that does not necessarily work either (although I am quite bad at it atm, intending to practice more).

Ideas?

[Vee]

If you don't like allin, then maybe try t3 rush yourself to defend the main front, and t2 gunships or defensive (acu/t3) drops to counter the harbs which are wrecking your mexies? Unless you are sera of course, maybe then you should take a page out of TheRedViper's book and go for t2 nano guncom allin xD

[Kalvirox]

If you don't like allin, then maybe try t3 rush yourself to defend the main front, and t2 gunships or defensive drops to counter the harbs which are wrecking your mexies? Unless you are sera of course, maybe then you should take a page out of TheRedViper's book and go for t2 nano guncom allin xD

It's not that I don't like all ins. It is just that it is very difficult to all in a 10 min harbie rush when your opponent is just as good if not better than you.

T3 rush works with Loyalists. Kind of. They still get destroyed but it is better than t2 I guess.

The issue here is that, against a decent opponent. They have not sacrificed pretty much the entire game to get harbs out. If you rush them you don't have to do too much with them. They can just play it as a normal game from that point on. If their opponent has eco'd too much then they have no units and harbie raids kill a lot and put them back in the game. Or their opponent has sacrificed as much as they have.

So if I t3 rush and he t3 rushes. I can probably defend the front.
Defend against the drops though? No. Unfortunately gunships don't work ime because they will also have t2 air. (I mean, why wouldn't they? Doesn't take that much to throw up another t2 pgen and get to t2 air that way). Heck they will probably use t2 trans for the drops and then wreck your air with swiftwinds.

Like, I don't find that what you have suggested works practically..
Maybe if I was a better player it would. I have no idea.

I don't play sera on ladder, otherwise that nanocom all in is a brilliant solution.
Maybe I should start.

[Vee]

Loyas get destroyed by harbs. Despite their lack of speed bricks work much better imo. Not saying it works, but it works less badly.

[Sir Prize]

If they can drop their first Harbs, can't you drop your first Bricks or Percies (or Othuums lol)? And if they have T2 air, you can have spent all your power on getting to T3 land first and defending more effectively, right? Or using fighterbombers to snipe power, or TMD and then TMLing their eco.

Genuine questions, the best counters to Harb rushes seem to me (from replay watching, not personal experience) to be use air or drops or a land advantage to heavily raid and get to T3 first with an advantage, before that horrible 10-15 minute mark when Harbs break everything if you're even.

[Blodir]

Just get t2 transport and use it to catch harbies with com ezylife

[Cuddles]

I think you where just stressed due to it being a WWPC title match.

[Blackheart]

Counter to harbie rush? Easy: Harbie rush.

[Kalvirox]

I think you where just stressed due to it being a WWPC title match.

My hands were not shaking. So no.

[Sir Prize]

Well I thought your second Badlands game against Mephi kind of had a blueprint for beating standard Harb rush.

You had the opportunity to kill all the T2 power around 15 minutes and put him in a horrible eco crash from which he could never have recovered air control, matched your production or used the reclaim you were leaving. Also, after the first Loyalist raids (which I think were feeding him a lot of reclaim when they suicided round the back of his base? I don't remember now) you might have had more luck with a switch to Bricks and maybe some Trebuchets which would at the very least force his Harbs to come to you, not around you. Possibly would have even been worth skipping the Loyalists when he was already having to defend, I dunno though, I can't remember the game that well now and I'm not exactly good .

This is all bearing mind you didn't reclaim the rocks around your base nearly as hard as Mephi, and wasted a lot of mass inside the first 10 minutes (probably due to the wacky air spam build you were trying, which obviously isn't how you/anyone usually plays Badlands). Honestly, I think the meta has to change a bit, but a heavy air build probably counters the standard Aeon meta and that game kind of showed it.