So leveling Soldier of Fortune I did my first factory opening on Miner Evacuation at level 3 and again on Oblivion Express straight after (both on brutal).
So much fun!
Got me thinking about what tech building suits what map/composition?
Dead of Night: Starport?
Miner Evac: Factory?
Mech air: Factory?
Zerg air: Barracks?
Zerg swarm: Starport?
Zerg ground: Barracks?
Terran mech: Starport?
Protoss mech: Factory?
Protoss caster: Barracks?
What do you think? Any differences for you? Any compositions that I’ve missed that have an interesting tech structure choice? Anyone using Hellbats and Banshees when they never have before and getting good or bad results from these underused units?
I’m really looking forward to leveling up a bit more and unlocking the starport upgrades.
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I’m curious about that as well.
DoN is clear for Starport since u need just 1 tank per entrance to defend and u can fight with air units (I prefer Banshees over Libs) all night
VL - I prefered always Factory - Goliaths+ some Siege tanks (to put mines on the spawn points) + possibly some hellbats in case swarmy enemy seemed to work very well
But for the rest I am not sure - some say that her Librerators are super OP so Starport should be the best choice, but I find Liberator count actually limited by gas and not the cooldown (unless I take gas from ally), but with Factory opening I have to be very careful about Ravens that become hard to replace.
I only use Barracks with P1.
I tried Factory sometimes on maps with Infested, but I get locked behind units costs rather than unit cooldown, and Barracks are just more efficient.
Starport make Ravens, just Ravens, nothing else than Ravens, no need to be built first…unless maybe your ally quickly quit the game and you’ve got a 4 bases economy, so you can try weird styles.
No difference for me. I run P3.
That said, as a Nova player and especially as P1, you should be able to handle with ease using any of the production structure’s units.
The reasons are quite simple, you are getting far more of some very strong units. So if P0 can deal with each composition on any mission using any strategy then P1 with “extra” of the same units should not have issue.
Dead of Night, I go with factory, u can park ur tanks sieged in base while ur Goliaths, banshees go out to clear base (yes about four banshees). Star port is good too but I prefer the splash dmg from tanks. Same with Miners Evac. Siege tanks does very well in infested maps.
Mech and Protoss air I do factory because of Goliath air stun.
All Zergs I go bio, because ghost can snipe. With banelings I put Nova in assault mode to avoid mass deaths.
Mech and Protoss ground: factory or star-port are good. If factory, siege tanks are great, u can throw mines into front of enemies for quick kills or leave mines at their spawns. Liberators are awesome too but watch out for enemy Goliaths and dragoons (anti air).
My main preference is factory because it’s most versatile.
When I play P1 it’s pretty close to the same, only differences being:
Dead of Night I go Barracks, due to the worse economy on the map I find it to ramp up better. Marines and Ghosts (versus light) have good dps, so building demo is pretty quick.
Terran Mech I go Factory, too much anti-air for me, rather siege up and use combat suit Nova as a spotter.
And Sythe of Amon, always Starport, getting your Libs just in range of the slivers lets you deal with them really easily.
Below is all about clearing efficiently and quickly to reach N3 victory. Anything beyond this time frame is doable with any strategy:
In theory, your liberators clear structures faster. The problem are of two:
- You need to actively target structures, and you can’t let it sit there killing off broodlings for every one that dies.
- You’ll have a harder time holding entrances with Liberators compared to Tanks.
Killing structures using Banshees can occur at night as well. Even though less efficient per DPS compared to Liberators, you’re effectively doubling your clearing time to make up for it. The hard part of this is you’ll need to be very attentive, as enemies have detection.
The alternative to all of that is any strategy by not letting your units sleep at home during the day.
If this was P3, you’ll also have the luxury of clearing with Nova/Griffin Strike during the night.
While I prefer P3 just because of how fun it is sneaking through an enemy base and nuking the s*** out of it, I always go factory on P1. Nova Tanks and Goliaths are just really good units in general.
That said, when I tried P1 when it used to be barracks only, I was actually surprised at how powerful Nova’s bioball can be. It does not play nice with viper baneling combo though, so better not miss that airstrike if you see that coming.
Nova bio ball versus Zerg air is hilarious, the ghosts just melt everything and it’s nice to skip armoury upgrades to have more gas for more ghosts.
Goliath’s and Tanks work so well against most terran and protoss comps with some appropriate support from other tech as appropriate. A full ground mech build can skip Ravens and just rely on SCVs for repair.
I did a fun Dead of Night map with a Swann partner who covered defender and I rolled around the map with a full air army. Mass Ravens is so fun! (But I need to set up rapid fire).
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I (almost) always open starport first. Sometimes i go barracks first, but factory first is a little weak and unflexible imo. Even on maps like DoN i dont like it.
I don’t think that is quite true. Sometimes, if you go starport and for some reason the game has a strong bias against air units (e.g. zerg air with scourge and viper + just die + speed freaks), you could have a really hard time keeping your units alive. Same for barracks / factory and anti ground biased games.
That being said, i think starport first is the strongest option to take. Even in games that prefer other units (e.g. ghosts vs. zerg). Only counter case are as said, games with a strong bias against air units.
Yeah, blind going for a build has its disadvantages. I would say it’s tougher but not undoable.
We can minimize these by using a scout SCV too.
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Yup, only exception is Cradle, where the first truck can be used to scout out the comp.
Nova P1 and Karrax are the only ones I actually early scout for.
And basically:
Vs air; factory (Goliath’s to stronk)
Vs mech: Barrack or Starport (marauder or liberator)
Vs infested: Factory (hellbat/siege) or starport (mass Raven + anything really) and assault Nova.
When in doubt; barracks (Bio is always viable, although not always optimal (with the exception of facing science vessels, then don’t)
It’s a simple thing, but it’s nice to he paired up with Dehaka as Nova P1. Don’t gotta send that poor SCV to their extremely likely doom. Her men’s lives matter darn it, not like some rebel leader I could mention.
But yeah, I send an SCV to scout after planting my 2 refineries and second CC. Up to that point there’s not much reason to worry about what production you choose, in my opinion.
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It’s funny how maybe more than any other commander a Nova Ally has a way to give Nova (and especially SoF pre) a significant boost if they know to/are inclined to/can.
Can anyone add anything to this list?
Fast expo: alarak, zaratul, Swann, Zahara etc
Chrono production buildings: protoss
Scout (even over rocks): dehaka
Give up gas: stukov, Raynor
I don’t know… the latest i make my choice is when i mined 100 gas.
Any further delay would reduce the amount of preferable units you can get. Therefore I like to make at least 2 production buildings ready asap.
Fastest expo is p3 Artanis or any energy Karax. Although, it takes significantly more energy for Karax to kill the rocks.
Personally I don’t see it making too much a difference, at most you’d miss one of the chosen’s cycle. Most likely not any of the disgraced building’s cycles in the long run.
In the end you’re probably going to be constrained by supply (for Barracks), or gas anyway.
I’d say it’s more a matter of taste, you’re either giving up a small amount of economy (going for production before CC), or perhaps a few chosen units (going for CC first). Either way the effect is pretty minor.
For me, the choice is almost always based on enemy comp, except for a few maps. For instance, I’ll always go starport for mass lib on OE, and always factory for mass tank on ME. Aside from these (assuming I didn’t forget any), I believe one should scout to find out the best counter to the enemy comp before committing to the first building
I don’t mention Artanis and Karax because in my experience these commanders don’t have enough energy to break 2 sets of expansion rocks.
This is in contrast to the commanders that I mention who can likely clear their own expansion and then yours around the time your CC finishes if you go CC first (depending on the map).
I take it you don’t have P3 Artanis? Or you just didn’t choose Energy Mastery?
You can break your expansion, Nexus first. By the time your probe make it to your ally’s rocks, you can cast again.
So both you and your ally can get their expansion up ASAP.