Yup, far as I’m aware, outside of P2 it’s generally accepted that Trooper Mandate is the better choice. Just the two IWs over the bases gives a pretty decent amount (better with army support though, of course.)
Does P1 have issues though? For me I always had dumb amounts since the Troopers in ESOs gives it too
well we can’t nuke IRL coz all of the yucky radiation and stuff so SC2 coop is a good place to vent our nukelust.
I’d say no to that. And I say that cuz I’m more aggressive and push for time.
Even without mastery, RG will provide good amount. My above calculation was for without mastery. With mastery simply means less RG (or AG in the calculation) needed to achieve that similar comparison.
So to that end, the enough part is not met but you’ll still have plenty cuz you’re making RG + troopers. Either mastery choice you’ll have enough mandate, but the technicality on 2 base IW alone is technically not enough 
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Really enjoyed reading this, didn’t expect some sweet lore in the Co-op section.
well its from the god of starcraft lore so…
Guess I will test it out after I reach 15 again. Right now, I’m enjoying throwing human lives at aliens with P3. I almost find RG unnecessary compare to suicide nuke, or maybe I just feel relieved that I don’t have to heal the Troopers or micro them away from storms.
Yeah, the only way to test it is to choose P2 then:
So this would ensure you to have mandate coming from the 2-base. I believe this puts your mandate rate somewhere 150-175 ish.
I can say Whalins’ assesment is correct. Having increased RG mandate is better for P2. I got a massive mandate boost just from 2 AGs alone by letting them stand on my mineral line with 2 expansions full and with IW support. On the downside you are forced to roll out RGs ASAP to get the most out of it. Also if I’m not wrong mandate generation is based on supply and with p2 increasing RG supply it also translates to more mandate generated per RG.
…Why would you just sit your Royal Guards under your Imperial Witnesses in your base? You do realize that they don’t need to be indoctrinated to give Mandate, right? IWs just provide them with AS/MS bonuses and detection.
Thanks. I also went in for a deeper dive to find out exact numbers. And here’s what I found:
Base Saturations vs Mandate
So I want to clarify that either mastery choice works fine, as in practice you (as the player) will always have RG or troopers in addition to the 2-base saturation. The difference in that 2-base rate is really just 165ish vs 135ish (ie. 30% mastery difference) or 41/min vs 34/min.
In P2 though, since you have a very distinctive advantage in getting cheaper RG, your choice of RG makes a difference.
That calculation can be essentially swapped to any RG (barring some clearly horrific solo-RG like shadow or fury), and the cost per point is clearly worse for going troopers.
What I'm ultimately highlighting is not that RG is somehow massively better than troopers or by extension the mastery choice. It is that given the choice is rather insignificant overall, the better choice is RG-oriented masteries. As the player will gain an overall benefit far greater than the alternative.
And that’s at the very minimal expense of missing the +30% trooper mandate mastery, which is shown at the beginning impact little to early game. Keep in mind, not choosing trooper mandate mastery doesn’t take away from trooper-oriented gameplay, but not choosing RG cost reduction (set 2, not set 1) will take away from P2.
My point here is that aside from indoctrinated workers/troopers, I got a large mandate generation boost from my 2 AGs using P2 with maxed RG support mastery.
Fair, but I remember asking about saturation, people said the most cost-efficient number of workers is # of batches times two plus a few more, so seven batches would be 7x2, then added 1~3, result in 15~17, adding 6 gas workers would result in 21~23. Same goes with expansion.
In other words, 48 total laborers for full saturation is probably uncommon, which means the difference between Labor/Trooper mastery and no-mastery is even further narrowed, no? Every little bit of benefit is benefit, of course, though I wonder if Labor/Trooper mastery is worthwhile compare to RG Mandate Mastery, even outside of P2?
I’d say Mengsk can be an exception to the rule due to how cheap his Laborers are (40 vs 50 minerals, and the 2 early Bunker drops), the fact that they produce Mandate, plus the fact that later on you can just swap some over to Troopers when you get to the point where extra army supply is desired.
In so many ways our favourite tyrant is a wildcard, though the minor loss of Mandate is not all that bad either. (especially if the Troopers have their Blimp as well, like they really should, you don’t lose any at all, and when they inevitably die you can replace with the superior RG choice in P2)
Ultimately what this, and much of coop after learning the basics, boils down to is preference. RG mastery is less competitive outside of P2 but it does work, bearing in mind outside of P2 mass RG is also less competitive as well. Play around, find what clicks for you.
Danged technicalities.
Actually having an army too, who does that grumble grumble
Yeah, but remember that worker maximal efficiency is not the same as income maximum.
In Mengsk’s case, you’ll miss out both income and mandate. So to that point, with less workers, you’ll definitely have even less to sustain mandate. Same point made either way.
Gotcha.
Now, I have been building LESS RG than any other prestige in P3, is this normal?
Yes, it’s mostly likely because in P3 your weapon cost 20gas. It doesn’t seem like much but it is actually very easy to over equip and lose a handful.
P3 is more or less a trickle weaponized trooper strategy in theory. In practice, it is hard to do that to maximize your tactical explosion damage and minimize loss and cost.
So as a result, that limiting gas on a much higher cost RG (compared to P2) is gonna wear on your economy.
I didn’t feel much the need to build RG in some occasions, aside from Aegis guard against objectives. A few flamethrower charging in first tend to annihilate a bulk right away.
P1 is funny if you have enough eos, you can pretty much kill all attackeaves before the come close to you
P2 is funny if you mass marauders, the can pretty much kill entire ground attack waves very fast
P3 is the strongest in my opinion, not only do you get an insane Powerspike in the early game, you also don’t need anything else for the rest of the game becouse 3-5 troopers could kill entire attackwaves if you angle them right.
On Maps where you defend stuff you just build bunkers and load all your lmg troopers in it, they just melt everything, especialy in the early game.
Mengsk maximized. I gotta say, given Imperial intercessor’s annoying attack-move bug, and how easily Troopers die despite healings and upgrades, P3 is almost all plus. Not being able to heal only two of your RG is a small price to pay; how frequently do they die anyway, when there’s a wall of kamikaze Troopers in the front?
P2 is a straight upgrade from P0.
P1… I like it, but the issue is that some maps are just unfriendly for Ordnance, and building them purely for the CD seems like I’m missing part of its benefit.
It’s a tug of war between P2 and P3 at this point. P3 feels like I can do any map with the same exact strategy, while P2 requires me to plan at least on which RG to use. Maybe I should play other characters to clear my head before coming back to this.