Mobi Style: Long Nine Strategy

[Emuchu]

I noticed that I always handle Long Nine the same way.

If I'm Player 1, I'll build some light defenses down South, but my main goal is a Northbound Mobi-invasion. The strike team consists of 4-5 Soldiers, Mobi himself, and 2 Snipers, with the goal of breaking my opponent's Soldier Wall and taking out his starting Sniper before he's prepared to respond.

If I'm Player 2... same deal, except I'll probably have to repel an early Southbound push from my opponent. Anyway, here's a pretty good Ranked match I just finished with game_taker:

Long Nine, 52 Turns: game_taker (F) vs. Emuchu (A)

Some commentary from my side:

Turn 04: I always make a big effort to protect my starting Sniper. As long as he's alive, my opponent will be reluctant to approach from that pathway.

Turn 06: My opponent is very quick to push the offense, and storms my Southern ?+ Space. I notice he's keeping his Heavy away from mine, since he probably wants to punch my Base with it.

Turn 16: I throw a Runner at his Northern ?+ Space. I don't really intend to keep that space, but it'll distract some of his units while I'm getting organized. It costs me 2 ?+ to send my squatter over there, but it takes him 4 ?+ to take it back, so it's probably worth it.

Turn 22: He makes a second Southern push, this time with Sniper support. I always keep my Soldiers in groups just for this purpose: if one of them gets sniped, I'll usually have another within range to take out the Sniper, assuming I have enough wits to deal with the Sniper's escort. In this case, the only thing standing between my Soldier and his Sniper is an unboosted Soldier.

Turn 24: I back my Heavy out of there. I don't want to lose this guy as long as my opponent has one sitting nearby. Gung-ho attacks are a great way to throw the game in Outwitters. I keep taking my ?+ Space back with cheap units because I don't want to get anything expensive spin-fisted in the face.

Turn 32: I harrass his North wall a little, and reveal my Mobi, in the hopes that he'll let up down South. Mobi is useful for silly guerrilla tactics like this, but you usually want to be building a unit advantage when you do it, since the cost builds up.

Turn 36: Much to my surprise, he decides to attack again, bringing another Sniper to my South ?+ Space, but he keeps walking his Sniper within my Soldier's range. He'll take my Heavy, but that's alright, because I take his in return. Without his Heavy, I'm not worried about a Southern invasion, anymore, so I focus on my Northern strike team.

EDIT: GoHeat 3 points out that game_taker could've won the game at turn 35. I didn't even notice that he had a winning position, but neither did he, haha!

Turn 48: The moment of truth! Before an invasion, I usually amass 4 Soldiers, two Snipers, and a Runner, as well as 12-15 ?+. I always position at least one Soldier to be in range of where I know his Sniper is waiting. The unboosted Sniper is the expendable one, I'll Mobi-snipe something with him, and he'll most likely die the next turn. The 2 HP Sniper I try and fortify, but if he dies, too, I can always bring in the Southern Sniper as a backup when I'm ready to go for the kill. The goal of the strike team is to punch a hole in my opponent's Soldier wall big enough to sneak a single Soldier to the base. At that point, I can Mobi-Sniper to finish things off.



I wish someone like Calmon! were around to talk about advanced Mobi-tactics, but until someone writes The Great, Big, Pink Book of Mobi, I was hoping to get some discussion going on strats with the fluffy pink narwhal. Since it's difficult to speak in general terms about each team, I thought I'd break Adorables strategy down by map.

So let it rip!

What did I do right?

What could I improve on?

Is there some obscure Mobi tech that I'm not even aware of!?

And talk about your own battles on Long Nine!