sACU Worth it?

[rockoe10]

I know that the Support Command Units are used alot as an Economical unit (i.e. RAS), but does anyone use it to great affect as an offensive unit?

I myself used some Seraphim sACU's (about 4-5) upgraded with either Regen or Build power (mixed in for different purposes) to accompany a Chicken. By assisting in attacking and repair, i was able to push pretty far in Gap of Rohan ( ).

So has anyone else had any use for their sACU in the main fight?

[Hawkei]

Yes... There was one game I played years ago on GPGnet. The map was Sytris Major and it has a civilian Aeon Quantum Gate. I captured the gate and built an SCU in 12 mins. I upgraded it with the AoE gun upgrade and used it to win the game. I believe the game was casted by ZaphodX here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntBm0R_1Cow

I would not be in the least bit surprised if this was the only ever use of an SCU during actual 1v1 combat. It was one of my more bizarre experiments. It only worked because of the disparity in skill levels.

[Apofenas]

UEF SCU is good if it has both guns and shield. It's has like 750 DPS with AOE, good rate of fire, range, like 48k health, ability to build(ravagers ) and reclaim. I'm not sure if it's more efficient unit than percivals if it used as only fighting purposes, but it's very good since it has an engineering capability and doesn't leave wrecage. The second shield is pretty good as well, but it's a bit expensive. An omni upgrade is worth it's cost if enemy uses stealth.

Seraphim is a beast if it has OC, shield and nano. But those upgrades are extremely expensive energy wise.

The cybran one isn't that good in battles, though it's EMP with AOE is good, but, as for me, not that usefull. But it has an AA upgrade, which is very awesome. It's cloak is pretty expensive thing but combined with engineering suit, it can capture something interesting and steal some mass. Time to time it's used to build harms.

I'm not sure about usefulness of aeon SCU's upgrades compare to other one's.

[Hawkei]

I'm not sure about usefulness of aeon SCU's upgrades compare to other one's.

Aeon and Sera SCU's see more utility on larger maps. Because they have teleport capability. An Aeon SCU with teleport and AOE gun can very easily destroy engineer spam. Which is useful when going up against the air player on Setons (for example).

The Seraphim SCU when given Teleport and TML upgrades can function as a teleporting TML... Extremely handy on 64x64km maps. Three Seraphim SCU's with TML and Teleport can instantly snipe an ACU anywhere. I've only ever done this once or twice.

Cybran and Seraphim SCU's arguably have the greatest tactical diversity. Due to the different combinations of upgrades. There are two basic paths for the Cybran. They can create a Cloaked assassin for covert ops, or, a overt combat unit which doubles as a mobile SAM launcher. The Seraphim can create an incredibly strong and survivable combat SCU which can OC T4 - or they can create a standoff supporting unit with TML.

Given all this, SCU's are rarely used in conventional land battle. T3 units arrive faster and are generally more economical.

[SC-Account]

I like to use UEF SACU a lot. Put 4 of them into a T3 transporter and drop them into someone's base > instant gg. More DPS than a GC, epic rate of fire, can target individual, build, reclaim, no wrecks and splash - it is much better than dropping a GC, even if you could load experimentals into a transport.

You also can use them to troll pretty much everything, dodge T2 pd, destroyers, T3 bombers or outmanoeuvre a Ythoba. You can even dodge GC's and ML's, although that is quite lame and should be fixed (laser weapons fail to hit the bone if the upper body part is turned in a specific angle towards the opponent).

[Kulu]

Yes... There was one game I played years ago on GPGnet. The map was Sytris Major and it has a civilian Aeon Quantum Gate. I captured the gate and built an SCU in 12 mins. I upgraded it with the AoE gun upgrade and used it to win the game. I believe the game was casted by ZaphodX here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntBm0R_1Cow

I would not be in the least bit surprised if this was the only ever use of an SCU during actual 1v1 combat. It was one of my more bizarre experiments. It only worked because of the disparity in skill levels.

that replay is insane even though your enemy was playing very bad (t1 pds )

[rockoe10]

Here are my thoughts:

*Particularly with Cybran but can be with any faction*

I send 1-2 sACU's with my monkey lord and upgrade it/them with the AA if the enemy has air superiority. This does a few things
1) I can repair the Monkey when i come face to face with a GC giving me more time to dish out my higher DPS. Or GC targets my sACU
2) When my Monkey dies in enemy territory, i can begin reclaiming it and fill my storage and quickly build another Monkey. The cost of the sACU is nill in comparison to the wreckage of the Monkey. PLUS the sACU leaves no trace of its wreckage.

Thoughts?

EDIT:
On a side note, does anyone know the time it takes to Capture/Reclaim units? Is there a formula that I lack the knowledge of using BuildRate and Health?

[Gorton]

Monkeys are usually early, rushed xp ; i think by the time you have sacu you should be making brickspam + megas instead of quick xp. Sending sACU can't hurt to reclaim like you said, and they can make shields/aa/pds/ etc. If you've got the attention to use it, I'm sure it's a great idea.

[nine2]

Yes... There was one game I played years ago on GPGnet. The map was Sytris Major and it has a civilian Aeon Quantum Gate. I captured the gate and built an SCU in 12 mins. I upgraded it with the AoE gun upgrade and used it to win the game. I believe the game was casted by ZaphodX here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntBm0R_1Cow

I would not be in the least bit surprised if this was the only ever use of an SCU during actual 1v1 combat. It was one of my more bizarre experiments. It only worked because of the disparity in skill levels.

I just watched that cast ... and its crazy

[rockoe10]

So i tried using some sACU's in combat and it worked pretty well substituted in for some bricks. I did find the AA upgrade very useful against the air opponent and the ability to quickly reclaim the wrecks even in battle made for replenishing the ranks far too critical to not consider having a small platoon of sACU's in the army.

Con's:
-The Cybran sACU has a slow firing rate has trouble with swarming armies
-Its a target and can cause you to become the focus

Pro's
-Although you become the target, it can make for a "Tunnel Vision" affect and distract your opponent
-Reclaim becomes easy to obtain even when the battle is lost (+reclaim out ways the loss in sACU mass)
-Too many tanks to fight coming your way? No Problem, I'll build some T2 PD
-Soaks up a lot of damage, and if you micro well you can back out and repair.

Conclude:
Its good to include a couple sACU's in your army. The DPS/Mass is greater in say T3 Bots BUT the HP/Mass is much MUCH greater invested in an sACU. Use them to soak up some damage, reclaim some wrecks to support replenishing the ranks and back out to repair. If you lose the sACU, don't worry. Nothing is left behind for the opponent to reclaim

P.S.
I hope this leads to more army compilations in the future that include the use of sACU's and various upgrades.