Gunships in 1.7.4

A couple of open questions:

What are the strengths and weaknesses of Gunship Factory units, and what should they be?

Most labs have types of maps where they excel, on what types of maps should Gunships excel?

And now some lobster words about each unit in the Gunship Factory, which at the moment appears to exist mostly to produce Nimbuses, Tridents and one-trick units.

Wasp:

This constructor has a peculiarly low amount of health. Somebody probably has an explanation for it, but most constructors have more health than raiders from the same factory (except Jumpbots because of Pyro and Air probably for the same mysterious reason). Maybe somebody remembers why air constructors have less health than raiders?

Locust:

A high risk air-mobile raiding unit which struggles to remain relevant past the point that people are building Lotus to defend mexes. Can fight skirmishers, but that's about it. Considering Ravens can oneshot mexes with marginal risk and only a little more cost, this seems like one of the least viable raiders in the game.

Harpy:

What is this unit supposed to be good at? Why would I build this instead of a Nimbus? Gunships currently don't have any unit that can shoot at underwater opponents, but this would seem to be a good candidate.

Blastwing:

Barely makes cost against a mex, which is one of the few things it is able to kill. In practice, even when top level players use these, it is a surprise one trick for killing mexes immediately after a surprise GS plop. These could be viable scout units with more vision, giving them more utility for the mid and late game.

Revenant:

What is this unit supposed to be good at? The Nimbus outshines it by doing almost as much DPS from much further away. It also has QoL issues with holding fire, seen when just about any new player tries to use it.

Nimbus:

This is the strong Gunship unit, against which all others are compared. Being able to sit at a safe distance and pummel ground units (or other gunships) is a nice thing. For an artillery class unit it has a very good amount of health.

Gnat:

A fun support unit, when they forget to build AA.

Trident:

I think I understand why these are so slow (to not be gunship-eating machines), and I think they are so expensive because of balance against Raptor (which has its own issues).

Krow:

Everybody's favorite surprise gunship. An interestingly unique flying fortress.

Charon:

A pretty cheap way to move ground units over water and cliffs.

Hercules:

A fun way to steal enemy units.

It's a good point that Locust is strong against most raiders, the exception being Pyro which burns it out of the sky without even jumping. This is one of the few things Gunships do better than Air, with Pheonix in its current state.

Gunships can do pretty well as a reactive force, dealing with incursions into friendly territory, because ground AA is less likely to be present. Air Factory units can do this and more, with very capable offensive units.

If a strength of Gunships were high health for (for an air unit), this might help it find a place. Air being the fast and relatively flimsy airborne lab and Gunships being the tankier choice. Right now Gunships aren't particularly good at anything useful for offense, except Krow shenanigans and Nimbus spam.

Revenant is a unit that is very hard to use but can really shine at the beginning of the game. Set to hold fire and move as close as you can get over your target. Was able to 2hit coms, now i am not sure if you wouldn`t need a 3rd volley. later, their role is "hit and run riot".

Gunships used to be a great switch in sea games because Urchin (unlike LLT/MT) can't target air so you can just sweep the map and pwn most mexes with a handful of Locusts since they won't die.

quote: Harpy: What is this unit supposed to be good at? Why would I build this instead of a Nimbus?

Earlygame answer to riots. Locust can't take them down and the other gunships (incl. Nimbus) are too expensive. This niche seems quite rare outside of small teams (because in 1v1 you don't usually start GS and in larger games you go straight into the midgame).

quote: Gunships currently don't have any unit that can shoot at underwater opponents

Underwater opponents currently don't have any unit that can shoot at gunships. Amphs have to surface to fire.

I think Locusts are underappreciated. They synergize well. You need a swarm of them. Once you have a swarm, they obliterate bases that don't have substantial AA. Their ability to ignore terrain is very powerful; it gives them the mobility to attack individual targets that they can quickly destroy, avoid threats they can't overcome, and retreat with minimal losses when they run out of vulnerable targets.

If you're losing Locusts to Lotuses then you're attacking with insufficent numbers.

Massed Glaives wreck bases the same way, but have a much harder time getting past intervening forces. Locusts can just go around them. If you have intel and Locusts, you can eliminate nearly all of your opponent's expansions across the entire map in no time flat with minimal attrition.

quote: Nimbus has 0,237 DPS while Locust has 0,255 DPS per metal

I am not sure you should directly compare theoretical dps of a perfect-accuracy instant-hit unit and a slow-projectile high-inaccuracy one. E.g. Lance vs Tremor or Nimbus vs Locust.

4 Locust will do much more to intercept raids and kill Scythes than 1 Nimbus.

1 Nimbus will do much better against Lotus, riots, Stinger.

quote: In fact, a Swift set to land will outperform Locust as a raider as it can take out lotus, hacksaw or even stinger by simply outranging them with 700 range

This very enticing opportunity seems largely unexploited. Swift land-attack widget time? :P

Parking Swifts beyond PICKET range used to be a common 1v1 plane start strat. I believe that back then planes landed precisely where their move order was which ceased to be the case due to some engine change though.

Not only that nimbus can absolutely shred groups of air units, especially the air superiority fighter as it slows down making it super easy for the nimbus to hit.

quote: Nimbus is inaccurate enough that a single Gremlin on attack move and with enough time will kill a Nimbus just by dodging most of the shots and shooting back with impunity.

That's a good point, but during the 44 seconds it will take for the Gremlin to kill a Nimbus, the Nimbus is happily chomping on structures and is fast enough to disengage a Gremlin when it's tired of the light show. When Gunships are tough they can get work done.

Gunship isn't really meant to be plopped first however planes are too powerful as a second plop thus plopping GS as your second is detrtimental