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Spider roles&Problems

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All spiders can climb vertical walls
Weaver: Build stuff, it is one of the fastest constructors. Has radar. Build advanced radar on top of hills or make defenses.

Flea: Cheap scout unit, with a pathetic 42 damage per second, and 40 Hp, it will die to anything that can shoot and hit it. Cloaks if not moving, and the 120 decloak is somewhat small, so is effective invisible scout, cloak is free. Use for killing greedy undefended expansion, and skuttle shield units.

Hermit: The assault bot of unusual power. It has an incredible hp of 1400 which makes great tanking. Like most spiders, it is slow, and should avoid artillery/skirms unless supported. Powerful damage is great for slow/stationary units/defense, but should avoid heavy tank units unless on hill, those guys will overpower this unit. Fast raider will be hard to hit with this guy. Monohermit spam does work, but skirms can easy kite. Amazing meatshield for Recluse. Aim for defenses& tanks first as they are easier to hit.

Redback: A high HP for riot, and highest DPS of all spiders, it is great if in line and can all fire at once. This will kill most raiders, and if grouped, which is easy, will kill single tanks fast. Meeting with Hermit is great, but make sure these guys are on line, or they cannot all fire at once. Avoid skirms and artillery. Will kite and kill redbacks. Make sure to all fire at once at same target. Good range for riot bots.


Recluse: Skirmisher, indirect fire. Bad at accuracy, so single units should be dealt with Redback. Powerful against groups of units, especially short ranged heavy tanks, and should be in many spider balls as it gives incredible power. Group units are easier to hit with the rockets, it can also shoot over your units, making T flanking very hard. Artillery can damage and kill many of these, as they are not fast to catch. Needs shield and anti raider, so Hermit&Redback work great for the job. Use redback to kill any surviving units after initial barrage. Make a lot of these guys.

Crabe: 10/10 heavy skirmish spider. Not an artillery despite 600 range, but big splash damage can kill a lot of units at once. Too weak alone, make sure to always be supported, these crabes should only have 1 per squad, as it is expensive. Have recluse&supports to barrage enemy unit formation, then shoot with one crab and many will die. Defend with red back as has massive problem killing fast raider. If not moving, will take /3 less damage.

Infiltrator: Scout, but always cloaked unless energy is depleted. Has very small decloak, so you should have no problem spying on enemy bases. Has NO defense, only 8000 damage electrogun. Use to stun heavy tank e.g reaper. And finish off with units, this has a long reload time, and should be used wisely. Can be used as anti-artillery by paralyzing them, but may decloak and be shot at. Avoid confrontations with Infiltrator at the front, they will die. Target a specific and high-threat unit, as it has long reload time.

Tarantula: Anti-air. Missiles if all hit will do 1000 damage, and has decent range, useless vs ground units, but if these are spammed, no air force can get past, Or terrible attrition rates at the least.

Venom: Lightning riot, moves 0.1 slower than duck, great to stun enemy units and let units kill with less attrition. Weak on own as it does only 18 lightning damage, so merge with friendly units. Powerful vs weak raiders as they will stun them very fast. Throw into fray first and EMP everyone so rest of spiderball can kill without retaliation. Powerful if massed, especially if used to constantly stun units. As units that are damaged as easier to stun, this can also be used after a recluse's/crabe's initial barrage and support friendly units. I use this less than Redbacks due to sheer firepower of former, but it is great to use.


Problems:
No artillery for spiders. Yes. Crabe is not artillery. This makes long range fighting a problem as the spiders cannot close distance on artillery. Crabe is great for area defense and support, but not artillery shots. I use penetrators to fix this problem.

No true raider. Flea is too weak and a single lotus will slay entire squads. I use Dagger from hovercraft as cheap solution, and they double as scouts if all fleas died.
Strider/Heavy tank can kill very fast in open ground, so outnumber said tanks or have many recluses and you should have less attrition. Strider must be avoided or piled on once it is alone.
Skirms can easily kite, so have many recluses to stop kiting.
Slow at moving except venom. Use walls to your advantage, to cut down travel time
Good things:
Can merge well with other units. Aspis walks at same speed, great for shielding.
Can climb straight walls, and give you advantage vs entrenched enemy.
Powerful against many units except heavytank and strider, especially noticable if redback/recluse and outnumbers enemy. Will slay them.
Cheapish
Best scouts.
Biggest turtle in-game.

Tell me if I missed anything. Any CONSTRUCTIVE FEEDBACK (not u suck. U missed this so u suck)
+1 / -0

8 years ago
Spiders aren't actually bad vs striders since unlike some other factories they have access to an anti-heavy unit (Infiltrator).
+0 / -0
Skasi
8 years ago
Most of the stuff seems to be a pretty decent summary. I would rename "problems" to "cons" or "counters" though as they aren't problems in a game design sense.
+2 / -0
8 years ago
A lot of players use terraforming to increase the crabe's range and defense, which really does make it good artillery.

I don't often do it, b/c my terraform micro sucks, & I always find it hard to judge exactly what I'm building or how much time / metal it will cost... :S

No proper raider seems like a necessary evil. On some maps, spider movement makes your whole army a raider anyway.
+0 / -0
U suck.

But really git gud.

I mean... Spiders are hard to play with ok?

It is probably the only factory I don't know how to play properly. They require a lot of advanced strategy to make them work like flea scouting, advanced manouvers (split attacking, flanking etc), conservation of units (includin repair) and a fair amount of prediction on enemy unit lineup thanks to the vision gained from the fleas. Seriously this is not an easy factory to play.

Not sure what is the goal of this thread overall. Could you please elaborate more on that front?
+1 / -0
TACTICS:
Unto the breach:
My fav spiderball tactic
Units: Recluse/Crabe,Hermit,Redback/Venom.

1. Barrage enemy with rocket/plasma.
2 Rush in hermit, and kill those not damaged badly or avoided attack.
3 Send venom/Redback to kill off any units left.
Tips:
Redback needs to be in a line to fire effectively against enemy.
This is best against big groups.
Hermit goes first due to HP.

Cloaked killer:
This is meant to clear out enemy strongpoints porc
Units: Infiltrator. Any other units in group. Skuttle
1. Run cloaked infiltrator at enemy base.
2. See what you are weak to, if Skirmish only, do not attack. If raider, swarm turrets. If riot, longranged turrets e.g stinger. If assault,EMP towers. If air, AA. If nuke, protector.
3. Use infiltrator and stun desired tower.
4. Attack and kill with Skuttle. The stun is to stop the tower from responding against the shuttle, and if the shuttle dies then the tower is at least stunned.
Tips:
More than one infiltrator can be brought along, and you should use them on different targets.
Assaults are bad vs faraday because their already slow.
This can be used against units as well.

Electrocution:
Venom+Redback/Hermit.
I use this if little recluse is available.
1. Rush venoms, make sure there is at least 2.
2. Electrocute targets, because venom can stun multiple units at once, it will be better to focus fire on one unit.
3. Rush rest of unit force.
Tips:
Works vs Skirms if venoms can get in range.
Red back kills weak units
Hermit kills strong.
Weak vs supported artillery.
+1 / -0
I haven't seen any spider on how to use.

It takes a long time, especially overcoming the weaknesses these guys have on heavy tanks and artillery. I will keep adding more and more as I get better.
:).
It's very hard to play, trust me, I use this and it's a Pain if you can't use right

Tips:
Force the enemy into a defensive stance, which is easy with the powerful spider factory and combos. This will force him/her to pull back units, and build units to defend, draining the amount of raiders on the field
Spiders don't like raiders, they can easily kill them, but they are slow. So if enemy is
raider spam,have other subsitiute defenses.
Heavy tanks should not be engaged head-on. Head on engagements are for the tanks. Spiders must outmanuever (Flanking) or use a hill and block tank shots whilst still firing.
Raiding with spiders is hard, as they are slow, but if you get them there, it is best to have a Weaver and make mexes, and defend the place you have raided.
+1 / -0

8 years ago
quote:
Powerful against many units except heavytank and strider, especially noticable if redback/recluse and outnumbers enemy. Will slay them.

Spiders have unit named infiltrator. Three of them can stun dante/scorpion for long time. Two have enought if enemy strider hp is little lower then maximum. Infiltrator is one of best support unit in game and i even stunned bantha with it. One infiltrator can stun for long time damaged reaper and two can stun for long time goliath (three is its full hp).
Recluses can kill easy scorpion. Thy are OP vs scorpions because out range them and are faster. Infiltrator is also bane of close combat commanders. Once i stunned with one infiltrator 3 trollcoms, ally raided them and killed.
Terraformed spire crabe deals easy with dante and ground heavy tanks as well.
Largest problem from heavy tanks is units like pillager and tremor. However they are expensive.
Fleas can go anywhere. I have seen killed bb and singu with fleas because they just get in position where enemy couldn't reach them. Flea can be used also as spam unit example when two banthas fightning so they took enemy bantha shoot. Flea is food vs units who have slow attack and projectile. They can melt stuned enemy coms, units or striders.
With spiders in teams i prefer defensive or supportive play. And i have seen many games when infiltrator power stopped enemy heavy tank power, strider power.
+1 / -0
8 years ago
Thank you!

I have not added it because while infiltrator is powerful, it is hard to use for newbies, which My guide is directed to.
Also, I use skuttle as anti-heavy.

Units which help:
Commander. Attack commanders help spiders.
Skuttle: Anti heavy.
Dagger/Bandit/Scythe: Raider. Glaives cannot be merged well as they tend to get in way of shots and not kill as fast Dagger,stealthy like scythe and not as strong as bandit.
Penetrator/Firewalker: Artillery, depends on what you want as penetrator is great for powerful units. (I have seen 3 AI Penetrators with support, kill a scorpion with only hermits very quickly.)
Radars: Useful for finding those tank rushes and countering.
Aspis: Shield minimises attrition.
Grizzly for extra tank breaking.
Impaler, so the enemy defenses die before the attack
+1 / -0
8 years ago
Hermit spam:
3 Weaves/3 Caretakers, 30 metal per sec minimum (Overdrive mexes). Spider factory. Hermits
Assign caretaker/weaver to factory.
Repeat Hermit, just one in queue.
Wait till >20 Hermits.
Judge if battle is good for hermit, Skirmisher spam is not good for hermit, neither is Roach.
Artillery as well.
Run into battle, factory still making hermits.
Spread into line so all hermits can attack.
Win
+0 / -0