-> IF YOU ARE HAVING TROUBLE WITH SCARABS CLICK HERE <-

by BattaIia
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-> IF YOU ARE HAVING TROUBLE WITH SCARABS CLICK HERE <-

[ Edited ]
★★★★★ Guide

Scarabs are one of the worst units in the game hands down. Not because they are too powerful, no they are utter garbage. But because people have a hard time understand it's MANY flaws. Wanna roll scarab players? Let's get started:

 

You start a game with a harvester and you are opening yourself up to a rush. Sure, some rushes are easier to fend off than others. But scarabs are a pain to shift once they have dug in. Start the game with riflemen, war dogs, drones, militants or any other future 10 tib unit. That is what they were designed for. Begin scouting with these units and identify your opponents units If there is no sign of a rush, great, build your harvester. Sure, you start the game at a slight economic advantage, but this isn't chess, it's war. And to win wars, you need counters. So if they open up with anything else, now you know what you are up against and you can build accordingly. Now let's say they have scarabs! Oh no! Don't panic, and remain calm. You got this.

 

1) Don't build a harvester! He hasn't, and you shouldn't.

 

2) Scarab spam is a game of attrition. The easiest way to beat it is to control the map. Get your 10 tib unit of choice as deep as you can. If the scarab stops, make sure you are 1 tile away. If it is moving, go for the kill. With good timing, you will kill both scarabs. With poor timing you will get 1 and lose your unit. DON'T DESPAIR! If you lose your 10 tib unit, that is fine, get more out there to hold the line. Each scarab you kill sets him back 30 tib and you 10. So you are out ahead. Now let's say either through bad luck or poor micro (or perhaps you got greedy again and started with a harvester first) that a scarab is set up on both pads. Time to dig them out.

 

How to kill scarabs effectively.

 

The BEST unit to kill scarabs currently is 2 range units. Snipers, disruptors, artillary, MLRS, giga cannons, and sometimes even inferno's and titans can clear out scarabs at 2 range with their attacks. Safe and powerful scarab cleaning. Failing that, next best is drones as they are unaffected by fire. Next is war dogs as they are fire resistant. Next is militants/riflemen. But don't be discouraged, each of them are more than enough to beat a scarab. Bonus points if you have an anti-infantry vehicle or air unit like a rhino/buggy or drone/talon/venom/shockwave/flamers.

 

Build 1 of your 1 tib unit (or 2 drones will work fine) and 1 of your other unit. Move both units in, but move your 10 tib unit in first. The scarab will take out the 10 tib unit and your other unit will kill the other scarab and secure the area. If you can move forward, do so. If not, that is fine. All you need is to control 2 points to start charging the nuke. Rinse and repeat as required.

Okay, so all you have is riflemen/militants. Slap yourself for not having a better anti-infantry counter in your deck, let's make this work anyways.

 

IF YOU HAVE A LEVEL ADVANTAGE OVER SCARABS: Repeat the same steps as above. 2 units attacking the scarabs at the same time, the 2nd unit will beat the scarab.

 

If you do NOT have a level advantage over the scarabs with your rifles/militants then you will need 3 of them. If you can, circle around the scarab to behind it, then move in and let it blow up. This puts the fire on their side of the map and not yours. Do this twice, and then move your rifle/militants up to where they were. Ground taken.

 

If you can't get around them, then send 1 unit to it's death, wait for the fire to subside, then move 2 units it. You will lose 1 of them, but the other will live and take the ground.

 

Special cases:

1) He has TWO scarabs side by side!

This is actually in your favour. Send a 10 tib unit in where BOTH scarabs will target it. They will both blow up and you will clear 2 scarabs with one 10 tib unit. Winning! Do this twice and take the area with a 3rd unit.

 

2) My unit is fighting his unit and he is walking a scarab in beside it!

Always target the scarab if you are an anti-infantry unit. If not, move away, unless you are okay with losing it to a scarab.

 

3) I have a unit fighting his and it is about to die, but there is a scarab near by...

Disengage and send them to die by scarab hugs. Losing an almost dead unit to a scarab is always a great method to clear out scarabs.

 

4) He is guarding the scarab with a unit!

Time to shine and show him how frustrating scarabs can be! If he is guarding it with a ground unit, then bring in an air unit and fly OVER his ground unit. The scarab will target your unit, and give both yours and his a group hug! (aka, destroying or badly damaging his unit in the process.)

 

5) I'm playing jackson and Oxanna as my commanders

Great! If you don't mind spending extra because you need that scarab cleaned out yesterday, you can take a fast moving unit like a talon/venom/drone/Jump Jet Trooper and give them the commander buff. Move them OVER the scarabs and the scarab will attack them on the same tile the second scarab is standing on. This will kill it, and light the tile on fire. Expensive, but stylish, and clears a point quickly.

 

6) The 3rd nuke is about to fire and there is only 1 scarab left on the middle pad!

(this does NOT work if there are 2 scarabs left in the group!) Get your fastest unit on the pad! If you trigger the scarab while you are on the pad, the nuke will actually launch in YOUR favour before the scarab has time to kill your unit! All you need to do is put on your shades and walk slowly away from the explosion like the boss you are!

 

If you have your own method of fighting scarabs, let me know below! If you have any questions, feel free to ask and I'll help you realize how scarabs are probably the worst units in the game. 

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Accepted Solution

Re: -> IF YOU ARE HAVING TROUBLE WITH SCARABS CLICK HERE <-

[ Edited ]
★★★★★ Guide

Good point! But you have to have SOMETHING that is anti-infantry in your deck, yes? I'll assume you have no snipers or mg teams as that makes it too easy. So Shocks/Flames? Rhino/Buggie/Chem Buggie (Affectionatly known as the Chuggie!)? Talon/Venom? These are anti-scarab MACHINES! Yes, you can't just walk up, nuke em and giggle away, you gotta use your head a little.

First step is identifying that they lean on scarabs as a crutch and have spammed them. Crap. Okay. Let's do this:

Step 1:Make sure the pad is charging. Even if you have to hop off a pad, keep the nuke charging. Most scarab players are tech players that are trying to stall long enough to get tech out with little harassment from you.

Step 1A: If you have talons/venoms keep reading. If not proceed to step 2. Alright, you brought air? Great. Now what you want to do is approach the scarab from a corner of the tile, and not a flat side. I've included an image to help visualize this. Basically you should be 2 tiles away from the scarab at a diagonal, or directly above/below it. Give your flying unit a movement waypoint to the OPPOSITE side of the scarab 2 tiles behind it. 1 is where you would start on the image, 2 is the movement waypoint you issue. This gives the scarabs less time to attack your flying unit and by the time it reaches it, it will share the same tile as the scarab and destroy both of them. 30 tib sacrifice for a 30 tib unit. Perfectly even except that your next flying unit will get there before the scarab ever does. So now you own all that ground, it's time to go on the offensive! Good luck commander!

 

scarab SS.jpg

Step 2: Didn't bring air? I didn't either, I like a challenge. Alright. Grab as much real estate as possible. Get your anti-infantry staring the face of those scarabs so he can't overrun the map.

Step 3: This is going to get a little painful. You have 2 options here: sacrifice 2 rocket/laser squads to the scarabs THEN move your anti-infantry unit forward to occupy the space, or (and my preferred method) grab a tank. Drive it past the scarab. When it is just about to enter the hex the scarab controls, move in your anti-infantry unit. If done fast enough, your tank will tank a scarab and shoot once, then your anti-infantry unit will knock it out leaving you with a damaged tank that can hopefully harass their harv, or tank another scarab for an even trade AND your anti-infantry unit holding the line AND the territory. If you did this too slow, your tank eats both the scarabs and your anti-infantry unit is now holding the zone. Still a win.

"But Battalia! My scarab user is smarter than the average scarab spammer. He is using units AND scarabs!"

Perfect! Play the game as normal and whenever a unit is almost dead, simply run from the engagement (make sure you have enough HP to leave the engagement without getting shot in the back!) and then go hug the scarab with your unit. Anything will do. Almost dead riflemen, almost dead tanks. Anything and everything works. Won the engagement but the unit is almost dead? Hug the scarab! Eventually the other guy will get tired of making scarabs for them to do almost nothing and stop making them.

Basically, as long as you brought an anti-infantry unit in your deck, you brought the tools to beat a scarab. The best advice I can give is get an alliance mate to spam scarabs in a friendly match so you can practice without pressure. But at the end of the day, you CAN beat scarabs!

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Re: -> IF YOU ARE HAVING TROUBLE WITH SCARABS CLICK HERE <-

★ Guide

FTW!!

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Re: -> IF YOU ARE HAVING TROUBLE WITH SCARABS CLICK HERE <-

★★★★★ Apprentice

WTF !!

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Re: -> IF YOU ARE HAVING TROUBLE WITH SCARABS CLICK HERE <-

★★★★★ Guide
Quick bump as I see players complaining about scarabs again.
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Re: -> IF YOU ARE HAVING TROUBLE WITH SCARABS CLICK HERE <-

★★★★ Pro

Thanks for this guide, BattaIia. Much appreciated.

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Re: -> IF YOU ARE HAVING TROUBLE WITH SCARABS CLICK HERE <-

★★★ Apprentice

While I agree that scarabs are not impossible to counter, I think you're also oversimplifying the situation. Right now you are working with the assumption that one can use 10 tib units to counter scarabs. This is all theoretically true, but what happens if your deck does not have these? And that's where I think some players find it difficult to handle. I don't think it makes sense that scarabs can force people to drastically change their deck just to counter this one unit.

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Re: -> IF YOU ARE HAVING TROUBLE WITH SCARABS CLICK HERE <-

[ Edited ]
★★★★★ Guide

Good point! But you have to have SOMETHING that is anti-infantry in your deck, yes? I'll assume you have no snipers or mg teams as that makes it too easy. So Shocks/Flames? Rhino/Buggie/Chem Buggie (Affectionatly known as the Chuggie!)? Talon/Venom? These are anti-scarab MACHINES! Yes, you can't just walk up, nuke em and giggle away, you gotta use your head a little.

First step is identifying that they lean on scarabs as a crutch and have spammed them. Crap. Okay. Let's do this:

Step 1:Make sure the pad is charging. Even if you have to hop off a pad, keep the nuke charging. Most scarab players are tech players that are trying to stall long enough to get tech out with little harassment from you.

Step 1A: If you have talons/venoms keep reading. If not proceed to step 2. Alright, you brought air? Great. Now what you want to do is approach the scarab from a corner of the tile, and not a flat side. I've included an image to help visualize this. Basically you should be 2 tiles away from the scarab at a diagonal, or directly above/below it. Give your flying unit a movement waypoint to the OPPOSITE side of the scarab 2 tiles behind it. 1 is where you would start on the image, 2 is the movement waypoint you issue. This gives the scarabs less time to attack your flying unit and by the time it reaches it, it will share the same tile as the scarab and destroy both of them. 30 tib sacrifice for a 30 tib unit. Perfectly even except that your next flying unit will get there before the scarab ever does. So now you own all that ground, it's time to go on the offensive! Good luck commander!

 

scarab SS.jpg

Step 2: Didn't bring air? I didn't either, I like a challenge. Alright. Grab as much real estate as possible. Get your anti-infantry staring the face of those scarabs so he can't overrun the map.

Step 3: This is going to get a little painful. You have 2 options here: sacrifice 2 rocket/laser squads to the scarabs THEN move your anti-infantry unit forward to occupy the space, or (and my preferred method) grab a tank. Drive it past the scarab. When it is just about to enter the hex the scarab controls, move in your anti-infantry unit. If done fast enough, your tank will tank a scarab and shoot once, then your anti-infantry unit will knock it out leaving you with a damaged tank that can hopefully harass their harv, or tank another scarab for an even trade AND your anti-infantry unit holding the line AND the territory. If you did this too slow, your tank eats both the scarabs and your anti-infantry unit is now holding the zone. Still a win.

"But Battalia! My scarab user is smarter than the average scarab spammer. He is using units AND scarabs!"

Perfect! Play the game as normal and whenever a unit is almost dead, simply run from the engagement (make sure you have enough HP to leave the engagement without getting shot in the back!) and then go hug the scarab with your unit. Anything will do. Almost dead riflemen, almost dead tanks. Anything and everything works. Won the engagement but the unit is almost dead? Hug the scarab! Eventually the other guy will get tired of making scarabs for them to do almost nothing and stop making them.

Basically, as long as you brought an anti-infantry unit in your deck, you brought the tools to beat a scarab. The best advice I can give is get an alliance mate to spam scarabs in a friendly match so you can practice without pressure. But at the end of the day, you CAN beat scarabs!

Message 8 of 24 (2,344 Views)

Re: -> IF YOU ARE HAVING TROUBLE WITH SCARABS CLICK HERE <-

★★★ Guide

Nice write up - thanks.

 

Doesn't really excuse why I'm dealing with level 44+ players at levels 20-27, but hey, whatever.

 

For units costs I'm good with GDI - I do use war dogs and for cost and speed they're a decent counter.    Your strategy should help even more.

 

It's just Nod verse Nod  - it's like you really do have to have militants to make it effective...  when under level, the Scarabs ability to hit air is just oppressive.

 

I will say if you can manage to stay parallel for the beginning - they're less impressive once the battle gets going.

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Re: -> IF YOU ARE HAVING TROUBLE WITH SCARABS CLICK HERE <-

★★★★★ Guide
if you are playing NOD and don't have militants, you can always start with a unit first. Even if it's lasers, you can usually stop the scarabs in their track. If they challenge your lasers, you will kill 1, and then lose to the other which means they traded 30 tib for your 20 and you can get back there faster.
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