Defending against Raiding

[Flynn]

In every game I watch the replay of, normally it comes down to 1 thing which my opponent has over me: Mass. They always have more mass than I do, normally because they are able to raid really hard and then backup that raiding with mass spam. Take the replay below for instance, I was playing the hardest I could. There was nothing else more I could do in the space of a minute. I was at my max. One thing to note, at one point into the game he has 15 Mantis to my 5 Auroras. I think this is because I mix artillery in with my units so perhaps it would be better to wait until the later stages of the game to do this? I noticed that my opponent was constantly floating mass whilst I was at rock bottom most of the time. He was even able to upgrade his mexes due to having so much more mass than I. Don't feel obliged to watch the replay if you don't want to, this is generally a thread about how to defend against raiding. I was thinking maybe to focus entirely on defending my expansions rather than try to defend+raid at the same time? Please note, I play Aeon which is better at defending due to their long tank range. So yeah, I got my ass handed to me once again! Heh!

[Batmansrueckkehr]

i will watch the rep when i am at home. but vs raiding only thing to do is to raid urself.
as aoen the only situation where u need t1 arty is vs pds and shields. so at the first stage u only need auroas + scouts to use the range effectively.
one point to get more mass than the opponent is reclaiming - not only the trees and stones around ur base, but also the battlefields. so wining the area of the battlefields and reclaiming the wreckage is a mass boost which leads to the win.

[Batmansrueckkehr]

you need a start build order. you have -90 nrg after 2 min playing for 2 min - that gives the opponent a huge advantage. if you have no nrg, all slows down. and your mexes produce less mass. so negative nrg is death. you need the right ratio of nrg you need at what stage of the game. if you have to many pgs you lose also because the opponent will have that mass in tanks.

you dont use the range of the auroas efficiently. you need to go in range as long as the opponent doesn't engage you. when he comes, you have to go back. that way you have more time the auroas fire at the enemy before he can fire back. when he retreats, you must follow until he attacks you again - if he does you go back etc. this way you deal dmg whereas the opponent cant until he comes in range. so the goal is to stay as long as possible out of range of him and on the other hand stay in range of your own units.

ratio 3:1 for auroa:fervor is not good.. i would suggest 5:1 or 6:1. as i said u only need arty for pd killing.

your problem of raiding was because of no radar (you had no radar the whole game). you play almost blind - yes you have some scouts but that is too less to react accordingly. the enemy has radar and can stop ur raiding quite well, but you are always a step behind so it is easy for him to kill the back mexes - because you dont realize him there - or too late.

he could tech up to t2 mexes. normally on such a small map u should have the amount of mass (he invested in mexes) in tanks and should be able to overun him. but because of your blindness and his raiding you are behind mass.

furthermore u did almost suicide with the acu engaging alone. never do that - and NEVER do that without intel.
after your almost suicide you sacrificed your right army for nothing and gave him even more mass. after this point all was lost.

this is what i see at the first look. i would suggest you get a good start bo for the map and build a radar latest after the 2nd factory. remember the right ratio of tanks and arty and the right amount of pgs - not too much nor too less.
auroa micro and the rest is just practice (a lot of practice).

[Flynn]

That's funny that you mention radar because I am normally very fastidious about building radar and I know how to micro Auroras properly as well, maybe I just wasn't playing as well as I thought I was