Foundry Rush

[Syvan]

First, I think the ability to rush is a good thing overall. I have seen way too much undirected turtling in the last few days. The question is: How much information can we get and how efficiently can we respond to it. On turn 2, we need to identify that a rush is a possibility and begin responding to it. I think that a runner should take the wit space for maximum visibility. From there you can see what took P1s wit space. If they used a runner as well, you should expect some sort of rush utilizing the heavy.

Due to travel cost, we need to build the slower units at the base spawn. On turn 4, we should learn more, if they attack your wit space runner, I think you can prepare for a standard game, but if they leave it alive you should see a soldier and a heavy moving from their base. I prefer to build 2 soldiers on this turn and move the more distant one toward the base, but out of range of the heavy.

By turn 6, there should be several units at your base. At this point, you can build one more unit and prepare for defense. Once the battle begins, you should try to destroy the sniper asap. That seems to be what powers the offensive. You should also try to keep units toward the the backdoor because it is possible to build a little triangle of soldiers that can deliver one soldier to the backdoor and use the other units to protect it.

Aside from that, the game can play out several ways. You should try the rush and defense against yourself in pass and play. I have seen it predominantly play out in favor of the rusher, but I have successfully defended it. It is possible that the times I have successfully defended was due to a bad rush, but I'm sure there must be an optimal way to defend against it.

As for the rushes swimj saw, I think those are better defended by temporarily giving up vision and responding with a soldier where possible to better fortify and prevent simple trading. Next turn use a runner to gain information as early as possible in the turn and try to respond appropriately.
I think what you see in those games is that the soldier in the backdoor is what actually wins them. If it was either closed, or that wall opened, I think the games would be much more defendable. The problem is, I don't think that's really a good thing.