Is it just me, or is Oblivion Express (the mission where you have to destroy trains) significantly more difficult compared to every other mission in Co-op?
I’ve played the mission multiple times and it seems to be much harder than any other mission I’ve played, most of it due to the fact that each attack wave is so rough to deal with, especially when you have to destroy each objective ASAP at the same time.
Maybe it’s just me, but I really think this mission is one of the hardest in Co-op (harder than Scythe of Amon even)
EDIT: Forgot to precise, I meant on Brutal difficulty.
In this mission you don’t have to clear fortified enemy encampments. Also there is zero randomness in enemy spawn locations and spawn timings.
As long as you know to kill the top train then the bottom one when the trains come two at a time you shouldn’t have any issue with these trains leaking.
The enemy attack waves escorting the trains are extremely spread out so the long range compositions (air or siege tanks) might give some players trouble since they will be supported by base defenses. You can always just back up a bit so those back units move out a bit so they aren’t supported by cannons/bunkers anymore or whatever.
You can’t just counter enemy compositions, since you also need to maintain ground DPS. If the enemy goes air, you can’t simply build dedicated antiair - a more generalist build is better in this case.
There is a huge difficulty spike with the first set of double trains due to the escort tech and strength level going from single 4/5 (3rd train) to 2x 6/6 on trains 4 and 5. If you haven’t properly built up your army by then, you’re going to suffer the rest of the game.
Checked the double train wave at 14:00 with the new protoss air composition that gets complained about all the time in these forums. It’s 11 campaign tempests each train on top of a bunch of oracles and campaign adepts. Good stuff.
The 14:00 and the 19:00 waves are both the same tech/strength of 6/6 but they’re wildly different (same ai composition but you get different units for some reason). Maybe there is something special about train escort waves.
There are also some factors with every train wave passed the first one. Things like Hybrids appearing out of thin air along the route that also constantly harass your expo. Amon’s bases also produce a lot faster than before, allowing them to cover the map with random stuff to pick at you if you don’t keep the perimeter clear. And then the middle section where the 2 trains are closest to each other can be problematic due to Amon death-balling you with both escorts at the same time. You don’t get this kind scenario in any other map, which is why I think it is the 2nd hardest map in the game based on the enemy comp IMO.
I couldn’t tell you. I always see people talking about how hard scythe of Amon is, but I think it’s an easy mission. Mist Opportunities or the Balius one are awful for me sometimes unless I’m playing HH or Stukov.
as an f2a’er i find day and night hardest. Oblivion Express is one of the easier ones in my opinion. You just need to have the right macro tempo so you can deal with 2x trains
Your opinion to me is extremely odd that I always considered oblivion express to be the easiest mission in co-op… even easier than rift to korhal for some commanders.
The mission itself is so easy compared to the difficulty to destroy all enemy bases on the same map. That’s why I refer the map as “my ally usefulness indicator”. If my ally was good enough I leave the objectives to him and kill all bases, that will result in me killing 3 times more enemies compared to the ally. Kerrigan is definitely imba on this map as she can kill all bases and all waves thanks to omega network.
You just need to get high dps anti-train units, some statics on the ramps and reserve your strongest calldowns to deal with the biggest waves. If your commander has very weak anti-air units you may want to build turrets in strategic locations so that your army have positions to fall back to.
Which commander did you struggle with it exactly?
For example it is very easy for artanis to kill the train before the train head even leave the range of your army, using the classic composition of dragoon reaver, killing the most dangerous waves with solar bomb or shield overcharge, or just kiting it with the army when you feel like it.
If you fast tech and expand, don’t lose much units in the battles and keep up with your production, your army should be reaching 120~150 supply by 14:00. If you are raynor or zagara you may already be at max supply at this point. The trains should be torched in seconds once you took out the escorts.
I heard that tychus have the biggest issue on this map against protoss air because of the mass oracles, tempests and carriers, you must reserve your odin calldown, drop the odin directly on them to kill the first bunch, and then maybe use the nuke for the next battle. Using warhound turrets to buy time while your other outlaws spam AoE on them can work but a bit difficult to pull off.