Microwave laser for frontline fighting

[NodCommander]

Hello!

Sorry if this is a noob question, but I have been wondering how to pull off a mid(ish) game microwave laser upgrade. What are the prerequisites, dangers and plan of attack?

[nocaps]

answer: don't, in almost all circumstances

against units the laser really isn't all that great; if there are few enough units that you can kill them comfortably with laser, you can probably kill them with just oc. if there are more units than that, then you're running under heavy risk by exposing your cybran paper com to a lot of incoming fire, and additionally to the risk of air snipes.

the one exception to this is vs enemy coms. obv oc cannot take out an enemy com, so if you're looking to snipe in a team game, or you want to kill a com that you know will be going rambo (you CAN'T use laser as a strategy against a com that is already putting more pressure on you than you can hold. it takes too long to get), then laser can be a valid choice. in a team game, you'll want to do it directly after the first few people get ras, and have a couple of extra t2 pgens to spare; with a couple of thousand e worth of overflow / extra production, you should be good to get it in a timely manner (although you need to communicate with your teammates ahead of time, and they need to be baseline competent). in a 1v1, i would probably go for a few extra t2 pgens and then just bite the huge duration of the upgrade. so VERY situational, obv, i can't imagine many cases where you wouldn't lose too much ground during the 5-10 minute time you'll be pouring your eco into it, but it might have some use as a last-ditch method vs a very aggressive com push (as they won't really be able to escape, provided you hold fire until the right moment). of course for both types of midgame laser the entire thing is ruined if they guess what upgrade you're going for, so take appropriate precautions.

in any case i would recommend strongly against laser going into the mid-t3 stage, there's just too much firepower for your cybran com to survive more than a couple of seconds. you mayyyybe would have more luck going cloak, but even then you're very vulnerable if you just march straight in

[JaggedAppliance]

Make sure you get the gun upgrade, it increases the range of the laser.