I’m not sure if it’s a minor balancing issue or just me not playing well enough, but I feel that at late game once you have a UNSC spamming air units for his entire population it is very hard to counter. The anti-air units feel kinda slow in firing their projectiles (boost their damage? I dunno) and even when I literally spam an entire anti-air army to counter the air unit spam the squishy Wolverines/Reavers get melted by the sheer number of air units, leader powers and also possibly some anti-vehicle units on the enemy side.
The scenario I usually face is mostly UNSC leaders spamming air. There are the max pop Vulture, Hornet, Nightingale and maybe some Condors armies, then there’s the Anders armies comprising of mass Sentinels, Vultures, Condors and Retriever Sentinels, along with some Nightingales. Especially the Anders army, that mixture of both Condors and Retreiver Sentinels is just overkill for me.
I’ve heard many say that if you’re Banished, the best way to counter air spam is to spam Banshees and use their powerful Torpedo abilities. How about UNSC? My Wolverines just get melted. Then there’s the possibility of using Infantry to counter air, becuase of the rock-paper-scissors thing, except that pretty much the only Infantry unit the UNSC has that can target air effectively are Marines, the most basic starting unit. Are mass Marines even good versus mass air, after all the nerfs Marines have received? Would using air units to fight off air units work?
These are some of the questions running through my mind. I really need help. Is it just my skill giving me this problem? If so, what actions can I take to counter mass air armies? Or are anti-air units not effective enough? Please help me improve in this game, write your thoughts below
> 2535405380102010;1:
> I’m not sure if it’s a minor balancing issue or just me not playing well enough, but I feel that at late game once you have a UNSC spamming air units for his entire population it is very hard to counter. The anti-air units feel kinda slow in firing their projectiles (boost their damage? I dunno) and even when I literally spam an entire anti-air army to counter the air unit spam the squishy Wolverines/Reavers get melted by the sheer number of air units, leader powers and also possibly some anti-vehicle units on the enemy side.
>
> The scenario I usually face is mostly UNSC leaders spamming air. There are the max pop Vulture, Hornet, Nightingale and maybe some Condors armies, then there’s the Anders armies comprising of mass Sentinels, Vultures, Condors and Retriever Sentinels, along with some Nightingales. Especially the Anders army, that mixture of both Condors and Retreiver Sentinels is just overkill for me.
>
> I’ve heard many say that if you’re Banished, the best way to counter air spam is to spam Banshees and use their powerful Torpedo abilities. How about UNSC? My Wolverines just get melted. Then there’s the possibility of using Infantry to counter air, becuase of the rock-paper-scissors thing, except that pretty much the only Infantry unit the UNSC has that can target air effectively are Marines, the most basic starting unit. Are mass Marines even good versus mass air, after all the nerfs Marines have received? Would using air units to fight off air units work?
>
> These are some of the questions running through my mind. I really need help. Is it just my skill giving me this problem? If so, what actions can I take to counter mass air armies? Or are anti-air units not effective enough? Please help me improve in this game, write your thoughts below
You are right, late air spam is very powerful in hw2.
the only way to efficiently counter it is to match his/her pop in counter units (marine, wolverine) and to use your power leader.
You can not engage efficiently an air spamed army with anti air and hope to trade efficiently without planning on using active power(s).
This is due to the price of a hornet/ banshee vs the price of its wannabee counter being so power heavy. Also, the sheer forgiveness of air being fast moving and flying over terrain can force you to engage it by chasing you down, while you can not.
I would detect an air spammer by scooting around the 3-4min mark and planned ahead to keep that air count as low as possible.
> 2535405380102010;1:
> I’m not sure if it’s a minor balancing issue or just me not playing well enough, but I feel that at late game once you have a UNSC spamming air units for his entire population it is very hard to counter. The anti-air units feel kinda slow in firing their projectiles (boost their damage? I dunno) and even when I literally spam an entire anti-air army to counter the air unit spam the squishy Wolverines/Reavers get melted by the sheer number of air units, leader powers and also possibly some anti-vehicle units on the enemy side.
>
> The scenario I usually face is mostly UNSC leaders spamming air. There are the max pop Vulture, Hornet, Nightingale and maybe some Condors armies, then there’s the Anders armies comprising of mass Sentinels, Vultures, Condors and Retriever Sentinels, along with some Nightingales. Especially the Anders army, that mixture of both Condors and Retreiver Sentinels is just overkill for me.
>
> I’ve heard many say that if you’re Banished, the best way to counter air spam is to spam Banshees and use their powerful Torpedo abilities. How about UNSC? My Wolverines just get melted. Then there’s the possibility of using Infantry to counter air, becuase of the rock-paper-scissors thing, except that pretty much the only Infantry unit the UNSC has that can target air effectively are Marines, the most basic starting unit. Are mass Marines even good versus mass air, after all the nerfs Marines have received? Would using air units to fight off air units work?
>
> These are some of the questions running through my mind. I really need help. Is it just my skill giving me this problem? If so, what actions can I take to counter mass air armies? Or are anti-air units not effective enough? Please help me improve in this game, write your thoughts below
Almost all ultra late game builds for UnSC comes down to spamming air. The thing is in this game to use anti-air effectively you need to have a 1-1 ratios which blows. So if they are full air you need to have pretty much full AA and you’ll win. Plus they are capable of chasing just about any of them down especially if you are Kisano.
Then once you smash their army you use whatever unit zerg powers you have to replace the units you are missing with units that can attack the base. Eventually they will run out of gas in the supply department.
Where you really get boned though is when they use the cyclopes/hornet/night set up cause pretty much nothing kills it but leader powers.
Would it be advisable to churn out air units in response to overwhelming air spam? My reasoning is that since air units are not direct counters to air units, if my max pop air army went against their max pop air army their army would be less effective against mine, and mine could last longer in engagements against their army. Compare with if I was spamming Wolverines, which are vehicles and are thus technically countered by air. Yeah, I may take longer to shoot down all their units since I won’t have any anti-air with me, but then my army will still have a higher destructive capacity than a max pop Wolverine army against non-air targets, so I can still attack and destroy enemy bases with my air army, and also they won’t be able to counter my army easily with mass Cyclops.
All this is in theory for me though, is my reasoning really dumb or am I reaching something here?
> 2533274846367343;3:
> > 2535405380102010;1:
> > I’m not sure if it’s a minor balancing issue or just me not playing well enough, but I feel that at late game once you have a UNSC spamming air units for his entire population it is very hard to counter. The anti-air units feel kinda slow in firing their projectiles (boost their damage? I dunno) and even when I literally spam an entire anti-air army to counter the air unit spam the squishy Wolverines/Reavers get melted by the sheer number of air units, leader powers and also possibly some anti-vehicle units on the enemy side.
> >
> > The scenario I usually face is mostly UNSC leaders spamming air. There are the max pop Vulture, Hornet, Nightingale and maybe some Condors armies, then there’s the Anders armies comprising of mass Sentinels, Vultures, Condors and Retriever Sentinels, along with some Nightingales. Especially the Anders army, that mixture of both Condors and Retreiver Sentinels is just overkill for me.
> >
> > I’ve heard many say that if you’re Banished, the best way to counter air spam is to spam Banshees and use their powerful Torpedo abilities. How about UNSC? My Wolverines just get melted. Then there’s the possibility of using Infantry to counter air, becuase of the rock-paper-scissors thing, except that pretty much the only Infantry unit the UNSC has that can target air effectively are Marines, the most basic starting unit. Are mass Marines even good versus mass air, after all the nerfs Marines have received? Would using air units to fight off air units work?
> >
> > These are some of the questions running through my mind. I really need help. Is it just my skill giving me this problem? If so, what actions can I take to counter mass air armies? Or are anti-air units not effective enough? Please help me improve in this game, write your thoughts below
>
> Almost all ultra late game builds for UnSC comes down to spamming air. The thing is in this game to use anti-air effectively you need to have a 1-1 ratios which blows. So if they are full air you need to have pretty much full AA and you’ll win. Plus they are capable of chasing just about any of them down especially if you are Kisano.
>
> Then once you smash their army you use whatever unit zerg powers you have to replace the units you are missing with units that can attack the base. Eventually they will run out of gas in the supply department.
>
> Where you really get boned though is when they use the cyclopes/hornet/night set up cause pretty much nothing kills it but leader powers.
No high level players go late game air span and it is not that powerful. The best way to stop air is to sit your anti air in the back of your main army. Works best if you can get tanks or wraiths to soak up the damage. I actually never see and never build air in my games that go late. Air just isn’t that powerful right now and probably needs something kind of overall buff.
When it comes to anti-air vehicles, it’s very important to think of them as support vehicles, not direct engagers. The wolverines are about as fast or faster than most air (excluding boundless fury banshees), and the reaver is decently fast and can jump. AA has very light armor but very long range and high damage, so your goal when using it is to keep it away from the enemy air. Generally, having something like marines, grunts, or tanks on the frontlines with AA in the back will be very effective. A general rule of thumb is that it takes 1/4 of the population of air the enemy has in anti-air to deal with it, if your AA is micro’d well and on the same upgrade level.
Tl;DR: AA is a support vehicle, don’t directly engage air with it or it will be melted. Have some sort of bullet sponge on the frontline, and about 1/4 the enemy’s air population in AA in the back. Anti air is very effective, you just have to play it carefully and micro well. Do this and you will beat air 100% of the time.
Also the issue is if you have a large part of our army as anti-air (Wolverines/Reavers) then you have nothing for their base once you win the battle. You would need to rely on drops or trying to build units as your anti-air die and get units to the enemy base.
