Troopers, The Other White Meat!

[Exo Etherial]

Yes, well in case anyone didn't notice I'm going through the obligatory Harkonnen phase in my Emperor Obsession. With it's cheap but effective infantry, tough and powerful mechanized elements, and penchant for mopping the floor with hated Teilaxu units: Could I ask for anything more? Well I could ask for a rotating turret on those Assault Tanks... But hey! Who needs strategic hit-and-run when I can simply overwhelm an opponent with Troopers, Flame Tanks, Inkvines, and ADPs?

In keeping with my n00bishness, I am going to relate the wonders I've discovered in Harkonnen Troopers. Or as I like to call them, "Gnats With The Gats!" Cheap, highly effective, and easily mass-produced; these are a Laser Tanks/Mongoose's nightmare.

If you are Harkonnen with Sardie, you might want to opt to go light on those regular Sards. Let them take on a more anti-infantry role, and instead mix them in with your Trooper groups. I find a 5:10 mix Trooper majority works best. These groups alone might win you a short game.

In latter games when Minos/Kobras/Inkvines get onto the map in force, these groups are pretty much veterancy chow. You should of course no longer count on infantry and Subhouse infantry to win it for you. Instead go for Assault tanks and put your Trooper groups into anti-flanking squads, and mobile base defense. You would not believe how unnerving it is when you send on 20 Assault tanks flanked by 40 Troopers. One player said, and I quote him, "Oh mother of unholy crap!"

In both short and long games Troopers are the proverbial monkey wrench when it comes to harvesting efforts. Well to be honest they are to the opposing player. If timed right (like during your first push into the enemy), you can normally sneak in a small squad of Troopers onto the fields. With a bit of glance-N-click micro managing you should concentrate on taking out the Carryalls, THEN the Harvesters. If there is a weakness in the Troopers weapon is that it's not very accurate against air units. And Carryalls are fast enough to normally get away in time if you choose to target the Harvesters first.

So! My two cents and another testament to my n00bly ways. ;D

[Navaros]

you have some good points in there.

troopers are mostly useless for offense in the late games, unless of course you wanna give free Chevrons to the Minos of guys like me, for which I'd thank you very much, sir!

of course, troopers are fundamental for preserving your economy against any good Atreides player. this make them an essential unit, much more so then for offensive purposes.

here's some tips for you. on many maps, troopers can be placed on a rock outcropping of empty-base-rock (ie: a 4 player map in a 1vs1 game) and nail the Carryalls from the comfort of that rock. if you are to block-in these troopers with the full force of your army rather than attacking the enemy directly directly, you can completely mangle the other player a lot of the time thanks to your troopers. good map for lame tactics such as these is Cradle Basin, for example.

[Apollyon]

Troopers are always useful offensively against any house other than Atreides. Ordos players nowadays barely ever build kobras (which is a mistake BTW) and most harkonnen players that you'll meet these days just build exclusively buzzies and the occasional assault tank.

[Exo Etherial]

Of course, most players are preoccupied in making Feyds or Devas or other such expensive and time consuming units.

And as for Kobras... Not building them is jsut asking for defeat to knock on your door and then suckerpunch you when you open the door. Take your wallet and snatch your VCR, before drawwing a swastika on your forehead...

[Warlord]

Why use hark troopers when Harkonnen have one of the best AA units in the game? Rocket Launchers take any AA offense, Devestators take em just as well, ADP's (when mixed with another unit group) are hard to take out, and The MachineGun Turret has good (but not Super effective) power over the air.

So far, the only thing that seems useful about the Troopers are that they can be either cheap AA, or they can be mixed with the hark light infantry for an Anti vehicle/infantry team.

[Navaros]

Why use hark troopers when Harkonnen have one of the best AA units in the game? Rocket Launchers take any AA offense, Devestators take em just as well, ADP's (when mixed with another unit group) are hard to take out, and The MachineGun Turret has good (but not Super effective) power over the air.

So far, the only thing that seems useful about the Troopers are that they can be either cheap AA, or they can be mixed with the hark light infantry for an Anti vehicle/infantry team.

ADPs suck, they are not hard to kill at all, no matter what you mix them with (against Atreides anyhow). Great way to waste your money. The other units are way more expensive/less manueverable than troopers so they can't be mass produced as easily. Plus, it's bad strat to use more expensive units for defense when cheaper ones will do the same function just as well (ie: air base defense)

[DukeLeto]

Nav's totally right. It's funny when a Hark player throws a line of ADPs at my Air Drones, I just mow down their slow-@ss little ADPs on the approach. ;D

[Apollyon]

And as for Kobras... Not building them is jsut asking for defeat to knock on your door and then suckerpunch you when you open the door. Take your wallet and snatch your VCR, before drawwing a swastika on your forehead...

Lol. I wouldn't say that seeing as how I've never seen Slap or Skum0m3n use kobras and they're not the worst of players. :D

EDIT: And no, the reason is not that they don't play Ordos. :P

[Scy]

ADPs? they are good against an Ordos player, how but to rush with a few buzzsaws and ADPs, good combo huh?....

As navaros said, they're just waste of money to use them against an elite Artieds player!

and they are good for base defence, just create a few to protect ur base from guilds,feds and airdrops.

[ken124578]

Lol. I wouldn't say that seeing as how I've never seen Slap or Skum0m3n use kobras and they're not the worst of players. :D

Kobra's are real life-savers, they are heavily armoured and can take out those nasty infantry units quickly, using kobra's opens a new world full of tactics.

[Apollyon]

Never said otherwise, indeed I said above that it's a mistake not to build them.

However it isn't ridiculously absurd not to build them at all and by above statement stands.

[Devastator_Mech]

Exo Etherial, you do have some good point in your 1st post, but you only concentrate on it advantages but not its disadvantages.

Troop ain't a good unit in early games, because 1st, it has low health, cheaper anti-infantries units such as light infantries would easily kill it even with cover (you don't have regular sards in the early games, even there is, there's no enough), 2nd, they are relatively expensive units the start, 3rd, they're just too slow to be a good rusher. To be a good havest hunter, it'll be too delicate to become one because a harvey hunter would always encounter problems, and they would probably die before it ends.

Its not that useful even mid or late games because anti-infantry vehicles such as minotaurus would kill them in mass easily, not mention they won't have a chance to retaliate because of its relatively short range.

Troop's only few use would be against the Laser's hit 'n' run tactics in the start, Atreidies Sonics (people rarely use it, but just incase of sonic drops which WILL be lethal when successful) and base defence (ground and air, i.e gunships and NIAB's) they're much cheaper, and as effect than building turrets.

Thats about it for their good and bad points.

[Apollyon]

Are you insane? O_O

"Troop ain't a good unit in early games"

"they're just too slow to be a good rusher"

The harkonnen rush *is* buzzsaws and troopers.

[henry]

Trooper is one of my favourite unit too.

BTW, Trooper is more effective against armor and buildings than against infantries.