On November 06 2018 12:53 Capresis wrote:
When I played this, most people (out of a very small pool of players) were playing the bug race and they'd fast expo, and I could never figure out how to punish it or even take my own expo safely. I didn't speak their language so I couldn't even ask for advise. The only thing I could find that 'worked' was a 1 base boomerang goblin timing (beast race). What all works against a bug fast expo? With human and beast.
When I played this, most people (out of a very small pool of players) were playing the bug race and they'd fast expo, and I could never figure out how to punish it or even take my own expo safely. I didn't speak their language so I couldn't even ask for advise. The only thing I could find that 'worked' was a 1 base boomerang goblin timing (beast race). What all works against a bug fast expo? With human and beast.
I'll try to answer from what I remember at my skill level. I played mostly Empire. Your question pretty much depends on what map you are on (naturally). The most relevant factors that play in is where the expansion is placed and how far away the bases are.
The BvF standard play is to get critical mass goblins before fallen can mount its first serious attack. On larger maps beast should fast expand too. Beast needs to augment his army with witches (for bloodlust and drop) and warlocks (for the poison cloud) and keep pressuring and defending. If the fallen player gets a far superior economy or makes a sufficient amount of avengers, the game is lost. The matchup is mostly fair.
EvF is a harder game to play. The threats posed by fallen 1 base plays (which are stronger and more likely) greatly limits how you can play. You are usually locked into a swordsman pressure strategy. If you have a crystal ball and know preemtively that fallen will FE, a FE of your own works well. But you should consider this "answer" to be unreliable since it automatically fails to all 1 base plays. I will tell you that you should be happy whenever you see fallen fast expand because fallen gives up a lot of advantage when doing it. What is especially important is to adjust your build when you see a FE. The "normal" empire builds are focused mostly on getting things up in time for this and that threat. Your economy and "tech flow" will be better if you play without these constraints.