"Poking holes in it" is how you get better. You need to consider the "what ifs". Ie, what if he does this? How do I respond? etc.

Exactly, that is called "strategy" for others who do not know.

Against noobs.

Countering a cheap strategy is fun. Initiating a cheap strategy can be a riot, like in Total Annihilation, sending a light transport to pick up and thereby neutralize the noob enemy commander. That was rolling-on-the-floor-laughing-out-loud funny, seriously. Taking advantage of the noobs a dirty job, but somebody has to do it...

By the way, the people saying "make a transport" are assuming that you're going for a transport rush build right from the start. If you dont, then by the time you see the coms its already too late.

@Badzilla, just because its a cheap strat doesnt mean it only works "against noobs" or that it has a counter. The only thing that "could" work is transport rush, which everyone acknowledges is completely overpowered.

Saying "learn to counter" are not magic words that make you pro .

I countered it again, this time on Setons
http://www.gamereplays.org/supremecomma ... &id=115220
I lost my entire team as they couldn't deploy transports quickly enough. but 3 ACU cannot fight off 200 Gemini and 100 Renegades (+1 nuke) in the end.

I haven't watched the replay, but those 4 ACU's must have been slow f****** for someone (or a team if you ask me) to get 200 gemini, 100 renegades AND A NUKE.

You're talking about 20 minutes in the game. (A lot more if the ACU's were aggressive) If they didn't do something else aside from upgrading their acu in those 20 minutes, then I guess they didn't go to highschool.

the replay got corrupted, but they tried to build up on their side for some reason after I flew back to my base.
I think they thought they had me, but had no idea I had an enormous fab farm hidden from sight.

lol I know that's how you get better but I don't even like the strategy so I don't feel like being the one to answer every question about it

As it is I usually got that direction so

Did you see the vid on Youtube? What a set of gimps. The burger flipper still had his hat on - was funny

Yes, and there could be too many different possible cheap strategies to counter, so winning becomes luck... Scout early. If scouting early does not work, then you have a problem. Would be nice to have a stealth scout to foresee cheap strategies like that, without the enemy knowing that you know.

One of the major problems with the ACU rush is how it's so powerful that you cannot afford to not prepare for it, even if your opponent doesn't rush. Some of the suggestions here: 'Build an air fac as the first thing you do and scout him', 'get radar up ASAP', etc etc etc - if you do make those kinds of preparations in a game and your opponent doesn't, you're going to be at a sizeable mass/energy/research disadvantage against an opponent who simply built up his base.

The only saving grace about this game mechanism is the fact that your opponent is faced with the same situation.

In either case, however, I think you all need to take a step back and just look at this whole 'how to stop ACU rush' discussion. Just what kind of hoops are you expecting players to jump through just to counter some - honestly, really pathetic - strategy that involves queuing up a few research stations and bumrushing the enemy? Does the possibility of an ACU rush detract or add to the game? Is it fair that you should have to (ab)use keyboard ctrl-k commands and cart your ACU around the map in transports in some absurd robot war version of a cat-and-mouse chase? It certainly isn't a game for the masses, then, and I do believe GPG was trying to reach a wider audience with SupCom2. I'm not asking for the game to be dumbed down but honestly, what is dumber than four ACU's invading your base within four minutes? I'm sure the Rock Head tanks would be LOL'ing at the sight of it if they could.

Don't get me wrong, I depise the SimCity players' style where not so much as a scout is sent out at the 10 minute mark. But the ACU bumrush is equally uninteresting.

YES to offensive ACU use, NO to stupid bumrush. How do we achieve this?

A pretty big portion of the problem is coming from the ACU upgrades which kill your shi­­t from a much longer range than you can really respond to - and especially how things like the TML and Artillery are still pretty inexpensive RP-wise and gain enormous (>+200% total) benefits from veterancy and Training upgrades.

Quoted for the truth.

The way I see it, how about making ACU upgrades cost mass as well as Research ?