zoidyberg wrote: ↑Shock Troopers are pretty powerful. Maybe a max of 25-30 Shock Troopers on the field at once?
The problem with limits is that they are so situational. Fora large map, 20-30 is a tiny number.For a small map its a huge number. Im no fan of limits other than 1 (for units such as tanya) so this IMO wouldnt really be a fix for shock troopers. Shock troopers would either need to be changed or something else changed/introduced to counter them.
Shock trooper rushing requires a large investment in teching very early on, getting tech centre as early as >4:00 isnt uncommon. The problem is that this leaves you strapped for cash and so leaves you with very few units and defences early game so it is very weak to tactics such as flamer rushes and grenadier sneaking; the difficulty lies in finding out whether your opponent is shock rushing before it is too late. An indication of this can be a very early flak truck or other vehicle. However. if this is not a 1v1 then pillboxes can be placed around the player by allies; thus preventing the player from being disrupted early on by mass infantry.
My own possible counters are as follows:
-Yak rushing: Getting three yaks up and on the go takes roughly 4:00 from start (havent done in a while so timing isnt quite accurate) which is how many you need to take out a single ore refinery in one go. However if the shock rusher has decided to go for 2 refineries thus delaying the shock troopers and getting a more secure economy then this plan backfires and puts you at a pretty bad disadvantage. Also, they may have allied air defences.
-Inf mass: talked about this, essentailly making enough inf to take out something substantial like an ore refinery early on. Allied defences also prevent this.
-MCV push: moving your MCV in once an economy is established with a fair amount of inf and a defence cued (if this is second MCV). Again, relies on shock rusher not having supportive allies.
-Timed Demo Truck: This is a tricky one. It requires you to tech early, que a demo truck and then use yaks + migs to defend/attack. The moment shock troopers come into the picture you unpause the demotruck production and destroy them; then you cue up another and the cycle continues. Recommended to get an early nuke so that you are essentially holding them off until the nuke and BAM! go in for the kill.
I've only tested inf mass and MCV push, both work pretty well with the absence of supportive enemy allies (such as in FFAs). I am yet to test the others but they are both very specific in their use so probably wont find mainstream use.
Or maybe i'll try to whip something up with Ukraine, i used to love Ukraine until shock troopers started being used which basically made it useless on anything but naval maps.