Im Newb WOW help?

[Mysti]

Ive been playing RTS's for about 4 years. i began the first mission (trade federation). I retrieved the control box, destroyed the air base, then proceeded to destroy the control center to the north. before i could cross the river, some tower protected by a shield began firing. the enemy had some fighters, 2 heavy mech, some light ground troops, (a total of about 20 units)

 

i had 36 mech destroyers, 36 destroyer droids, 16 anti air artillery, 32 ground artillery.

 

my force of 120 lost to the computers force of 20 in about 1 minute.

 

i grouped each unit type. i sent artillery ground after the tower, brought destroyer droids to the left flank, anti air in the back, and mech destroyers infront of the ground artillery. all units were in aggressive. i micro'd dest. droids after ground troops.

 

what am i doing wrong. a force of 120 should not have lost to 20 units.

[Chessack]

Originally posted by Mysti

Ive been playing RTS's for about 4 years. i began the first mission (trade federation). I retrieved the control box, destroyed the air base, then proceeded to destroy the control center to the north. before i could cross the river, some tower protected by a shield began firing. the enemy had some fighters, 2 heavy mech, some light ground troops, (a total of about 20 units)

 

i had 36 mech destroyers, 36 destroyer droids, 16 anti air artillery, 32 ground artillery.

 

my force of 120 lost to the computers force of 20 in about 1 minute.

 

i grouped each unit type. i sent artillery ground after the tower, brought destroyer droids to the left flank, anti air in the back, and mech destroyers infront of the ground artillery. all units were in aggressive. i micro'd dest. droids after ground troops.

 

what am i doing wrong. a force of 120 should not have lost to 20 units.

 

Hard to say exactly, without actually watching a recording of the game, but, some possible explanations:

 

1. Agressive mode is a terrible idea. I always set all my forces on 'defensive'. This allows them to defend themselves and fire at the enemy, chase him for a little bit, but reigns them in so they won't go haring off on their own and break formation. Agressive units often chase the enemy to their own death.

 

2. The shielding probably saved them. Your units were not shielded. It's very hard to take out units or buildings protected by a shield generator. What you need to do is go after (with pummels or artillery) the power generators that power the shield generator. Knock those out, and the shield gen runs out of power. The shield drops. Now your 120 units can go kick butt.

 

I have held off very superior computer forces for wave after wave of rushes, by having my forces inside a fambaa shield or in the protective radius of a shield barrier.

 

3. Watch out for air attacks. It sounds like you had good anti-air defenses, but those can still do some major damage to mechs.

 

4. 1/3 of your force was artillery. That sounds like too much to me. You need a good 4-6 regular units defendign each major artillery piece. Without that, he can send in a few mounted troops, and chew your artillery to pieces. Melee troops can also hurt you against mech destroyers, which have a minimum firing range.

 

I recommend doing something like a pummel drop here, if you can. Build 10 pummels, put them inside 2 air transports, send the air transports just outside his field of view, on opposite sides of his stronghold. Then send both transports in to unload the pummels, one on either side. If possible, assign 4 or 5 fighters to 'guard mode' over the air transports, just to confuse his AA with multiple targets. Drop the pummels on his butt, and watch them chew his shield generator and power generators to bits. Once that happens, then you can send in your regular combat forces and clean his clock.

 

May the Force be with you.