brickwalling

[ggom]

hello, had a game recently where i tried to brickwall for the first time. it was vs hark, and both of us had sard and fremen subhouse. so basically i survived the first few rushes, and set out a proper wall with alot of elites, kindjal, snipers and minos. And ALOT of drones, some of which i sent into his spice (he got troopers after tt). The problem is that as soon as i settled into walling in, he massed inkvines, and started harrassing my walls. Minos walk damn slow, and he had buzzsaws and stuff to protect the inkvine from my elites. basically vey irritating, and he had enugh inkvines to kill minos.

WHAT TO DO? he has missile tanks for thopters. We had both settled into a 3x factory 4x refinery building spree.

[GhostHunter]

Progressively move. The reality is the inkivine has its range to be nothing more than a nuisance.

Get repairs, and hold formation while you move forward. Let me tell you from more than three years of playing with Atreides that if you hold a steady line there's nothing that can stop you. Remember, the real power of Atreides are their integration and how easily one unit can support the other.

One of the more subtle tricks are to worm him with 10-15 fremen before hand. That's a trick no one especially prepares for, and the Harkonnen don't have a unit that's easily produced (like the sniper -- flame tank screws up production) that can stop multiple worms. Rather, they typically rely on brute force, kind of a bad situation to be in.

When the worms are thrashing, move the lines as quick as possible, and hit him hard.

In referance to the gunship, drone, and thopter thing -- don't bother. The orthinopters are absolutely worthless in every extent. Realize though, the power of the gunships. Use the drones to whipe them out, and wage an economical war by destroying the carryalls/using fremen to snipe out the troopers he sends for air cover (hardly ever will a Harkonnen player send mechs for AA; some however, do, but they tend to be 2-3 missile tanks which'll be eaten by fremen).

Another trick is disruption. Use forces of sand bikes, fremen, and sardukar to distort his formations. Remember, the trick isn't to win the battle with those, obviously, but just to keep his eyes somewhere else. That and irritiation comes from that -- another phsycological trick.

EDIT: With that last note, remember that gaming, especially in Emperor has a lot of roots of victory laid in mentality. If you can piss off the other player, or make him less capable to make a rational descision, especially in terms of a balls-driven Harkonnen player, the better. What's he going to do? Charge an Atreides line? Let him.

Been awhile since I've played Emperor, so more ideas are coming to mind as I'm typing this.

Advanced carryalls. Picked up the inkivines, and blast'em with a drone. Pretty simple, and since it's a air unit it doesn't affect your ground production. Additionally, it's another mind game.

Harv dropping is another. Keep the inkivines busy while you're moving your lines with a few harvesters. That and you can sneak some feyd's in under the confusion to reek havoc.

In regards to the buzzsaws: Remember that saws can't touch Atreides combos. Simple as that. Even mongooses with a few supporting sardaukar, or sand bikes totally whipe them off the face of the Earth.

Most simple two things are: Get an early advantage, and since you max out the production of the factories, look for other production benefits.

For instance, the late game advtanage historically goes to the Atreides, but if you can deal an early blow to give you an upper hand, the better. Also, try to look for airborne tricks, like the carryalls, to off-set ground production equality -- that and sub-houses, remember the starport.

[Schorpie]

Like i see you've got already a bunch of usefull tips. I'd also recommand to split up your army to more (3-5 at fishers) smaller groups. That way the ordos or hark player can't take advantage of the slow mino's and can't get to your harvesters or something. Inkvines shooting at mino's isn't that bad, it's the kindjall that mostly suffer of it. When you use different smaller groups, the hark player will use his entire army to attack a little group, when done properly (especially enough AA vs advanced carryals -> elite sardaukar) he will loose double as much as you did.

When possible try to move your groups a little bit forward, step by step, till you reach his spice area. Also try to irritate him with advanced carryals with mino's on inferantry or in his base. Just be aware of dev drops in ur base (fremen/sard/turrets/drones/..)

But euh.. if i keep it short: try to move forward with your group, using the "j" button. After a while he'll have to attack you... and attacking a atr wall is mostly a gg.

[darkd3th]

I was actually watching the game you were playing ;it was agaisnt my brother, I was sorta showing him how to play again or telling him what to do if you will. He's pretty decent but back to your sitution or question in any case you don't produce the whole time which is one thing wrong you did. I'm not sure how many factories or whatever you had but if you were producing the whole time then you didn't have 3 of any buildings. I beleive you didn't becuase my brother wasn't producieng the whole time and out massed you and at the end of the game he had 200k left lol. Another thing just like ghost and schorpie said you want moble units which I saw that you didn't have. ( this means a combonation of bikes reg inf sards etc)An thats pretty much my advicec

So

-get 3 of each building

-try to produce all the time

-and don't make exactly a wall you want to be pressing on inch you way so to speak to his base.

-also I didn't see you scouting or any scouts go thew his base , i don't know if i just missed them but scouting is a big deal you have to know what the otehr eprson's doing

[KALONY]

and ur story sounds like u were always in a defence position....dont do that. try always to be agrassive, and try to go ahead...dont do suicide missions, but try to go forward. everybody who is turteling will die.

and savs ur minos with elites, they will save u against air attacks and they r verry good against catapults coz they r faster than the catrapults can shoot...so hit n run em to death...

kalony

[pearlmen]

if you just want to get answer of annoying inkvine I can tell you. Get mass sandbikes(devided groups)with infantry and some advanced caryalls with minos for firepower support. its nice atreidis combo against hark buzz+inkvine, and always think it. you have to get mass inf vs hark (atriedis without inf is too weak)

but you have to aware of hark dev drop on ur base or ur mass minos. its only chance hark beat up atr in late. like scorphie said, prepare for drones and sard, fedykin in ur base. and if you have lots of money, put some kindjals in ur base or make ornithopters is a good idea too. (I dont think ornis sux anymore::)If u have mass ornis,they are good killing dev drop, so u can almost ur firepower rush to hark. no more need to put ur inf with sub(fremen sard)or turret in ur base anymore.

[eid]

get a few  ornis to complement your minos, they are one of the best things atreides has for inkvines ,  if used well they can also stop adv carryalls and devastator drops as well..

(that is have 4~5 ornis b4 they think of using inks/hangar)

also having a few repair vehicles can really help there,  just make sure u got ur support army close by in case they try swarm you..

atreides need their air!

its either that or do the sardelite mino bike sniper feydakin thing :/

[Newlords]

hehehe u guys sound like a plan  ;D

[Cyborg]

atreides need their air!

They'd surely suffocate without it...